Just One Smile
by NoNameNeeded
Summary: People say that a smile is worth a thousand words, but noone has ever seen Naruto’s true smile. Behind the mask, there is a scared individual who possesses a hidden strength. FemNaruSasu
1. Introduction

**Just to make this clear so that people won't complain about the length: This fic will be made out of short chapters so that it con be updated more quickly.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto**

**Enjoy...**

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"Okay team, meet back at the bridge tomorrow, as I will have some very good news to tell you all, so don't be late…" And with that, Kakashi was gone in a _poof_. Sakura then walked over to sasuke to ask her favourite questioned, and Sasuke's most hated one.

"Do you want to go out on a date with me tonight Sasuke-kun?" Sasuke just turned and glared at her, before replying a simple 'no'. Sakura's head fell, her eyes staring at the ground, awaiting the usual routine, where Naruto would then ask her out instead, but she didn't hear him, she looked up to find that he was walking his way back to his apartment.

"N-naruto… are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah… I just gotta get home before it's too late, that's all…"

"But it's only, like, six." But Naruto was gone before he could hear her. She sighed, and she also began to make her way home, all the while thinking that something was going on with Naruto, he was acting strange, even stranger then usual.

_**At Naruto's apartment…**_

Naruto had quickly arrived back home, and he locked the door for once. He then ran over to his bed and sat on it, hugging his legs tight to his chest, rocking gently back and forth. _I hope he gets here in time and that he hasn't gone and forgotten about it or something… Please, oh, please get her before it's too late… I beg you…_

After a while, Naruto fell asleep, in the same position which he was in moments before.

_**The next day…**_

Both Sakura and Sasuke had been waiting at the bridge for two hours now, and there had been no sign of Naruto nor their sensei, this being expected of the latter, but not Naruto, especially not when they had been told about there being some exciting news.

"Sasuke… Do you know where Naruto is?"

"The dobe probably slept in or something."

"Yeah, but he acted kinda strange yesterday, don't you thing?"

"Hn."

A couple minutes later, there was a _poof_, and after the smoke cleared, there stood their sensei, with his eyes glued in his infamous book. "Yo, sorry I'm late, but I found a dirty pair of socks that hadn't been washed, so I… Where's Naruto?"

"We don't know, we haven't seen him since yesterday, we were kinda hoping that you knew."

"Well, we'll just wait a couple of minutes and if he doesn't turn up, then we'll just have to go and look for him ourselves, okay?" Both Sasuke and Sakura nodded, leaning against the railing of the bridge, getting more and more impatient with each passing second. It was bad enough having to wait for their sensei to turn up, but also having to wait for Naruto, now that was just pushing it.

Half an hour passed, and still no Naruto, so the three of them split up to go and search for the blond. Sakura went to Ichiraku to see if he was there or in the area surrounding, Kakashi went and searched in the other training fields whilst Sasuke went to Naruto's apartment to see if he was there. They had all agreed to meet each other back at the bridge every half an hour.

Sakura had had no luck whatsoever in finding Naruto, she had also asked the old man and Ayame if they had seen him, but they hadn't, not since the morning before, which meant that he hadn't even had dinner there the night before, something was definitely up with Naruto.

Kakashi also hadn't found any trace of the blond, but had sadly found Team Gai, so he was now in hiding from Konoha's Green Beast, who was now in search him in hope to have another fight of some sort, in hope of beating him and proving that his flames of youth were brighter then Kakashi's. Luckily for Kakashi, over the years he had become an expert in hiding from Gai, the thing was though that he needed to go search for his student.

As Sasuke made his way to Naruto's apartment, he couldn't help but get the feeling that something was wrong, but he just pushed the feeling off, thinking that he was just annoyed at the blond for his tardiness. He had reached the door and placed his hand on the door knob to open it, but found that it was locked. _That's weird, he never locks his door…_ He then tried hard, pushing the door back and forth, but still, there was no sign of it giving it.

"Naruto! Come out, I know you're in there!" Sasuke shouted impatiently. He didn't actually know, but he just had a feeling that he was. "Come on dobe, open the damn door!" Still nothing, that is, until h heard some shuffling. Seconds later, a piece of paper was slid under the door. Sasuke picked it up and read it.

_Please go away. _

"Who are you and what are you doing in Naruto's apartment?!" But there was no answer, and Sasuke was getting enraged, so he left the door and jumped up to one of the windows, and found that it was also locked. Again, that was very strange. But Sasuke was too angry to try and find another way in, so he smashed the glass and jumped in, landing in the living room of the small apartment, there wasn't a trace in here, apart from the usual mess which Naruto had. _At least that's the same…_

He walked over to the kitchen, and found that empty, so finally he decided to look in the bedroom, but when he tried to open the door, he found that he couldn't as it was also locked. _Something is definitely going on here…_

He did a couple of hand seals and blew out a small fireball, only just big enough to obliterate the door, but not big enough to do any damage to the house. The door flung off it's hinges and Sasuke entered, ready with a kunai in his hand for any attack. He couldn't see anyone, but then noticed that there was some one hiding under the sheets, shaking quite a bit.

Enraged, Sasuke walked over to the bed and pulled the cover away so quickly that if you blinked you would have missed it. What Sasuke saw shocked him. He didn't know what to say as he was staring at the person in front of him, what could he say, he had had no idea.


	2. The Truth Is Out

**Here you go, enjoy...**

**Ps. I don't own Naruto, if I did, then I would be busy writing the anime...**

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"N-na-naruto?... I-is that y-you?…"Sasuke stammered, which Uchiha's don't do, at least not when around others.

The person in the bed looked up and began to mumble something which Sasuke didn't quite catch. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"Pl-please… d-don't tell anyone…"

Sasuke began to walk closer, but stopped when the person flinched. "What?… How?… I don't understand…"

You could here tears being shed. "I-I'm sorry, I d-didn't tell y-you…" In front of Sasuke was not the hyperactive blond boy, but a shy blond girl. She had long silky yet straight blond hair which reached the bottom of her back and she had a diagonal fringe which began above her left eye and ended on her right cheek, hiding her right eye. The visible eye was the same deep blue as before, you could see deep inside and it was filled with fear and sadness, almost like it was pleading for help. She still had the three whisker-like marks on each cheek. She wore a white crop top which had long baggy sleeves, covering her hands, ending with a flare and she had an ocean blue skirt, which ended at her knees, with a slit going up on her left side to the top of her thigh, making it easy to see that she was also wearing a pair of white under shorts. She then wore a blue pair of shinobi sandals to finish the look off.

"Pl-please take m-me to the Ho-hokage… pl-please…" Sasuke could only just stand there and nod, before realizing what she just asked of him. He went over to the closet and took out a cloak, placing it over the girl, pulling her off of the bed gently so that she was standing. He then stood by her side, placing a hand on each of her shoulders as he was leading her to the Hokage's office, ignoring the stares of passers by.

_**At the Hokage's office…**_

It wasn't even noon yet and the pile of paperwork in front of him had already doubled in size since he began early this morning; no matter how hard he tried to make the pile smaller, it just seemed to grow and grow.

_Knock, knock…_

The hokage let out a sigh of relief, as he now had a reason to take a break from the ever so loveable paperwork. "Enter."

The door opened and in came Uchiha Sasuke, along with another figure who was clad in a large cloak, making it impossible to see who was under it.

"What brings you here Sasuke?"

But he didn't say anything, he only lead the cloaked figure over to one of the chairs, letting her sit down on it as he walked to the back of the room, leaning against the wall. Everything was now silent. The Hokage was extremely confused, but then a thought hit him as he saw the expression on Sasuke's face and when he remembered what the date was today.

"Naruto?…"

The cloaked figure nodded.

"I'm sorry Jiraiya couldn't make it on time, he was caught up with some information gathering in the west somewhere. I didn't expect this day to be so soon either. I should have remembered… Oh, and thank you for bringing her here Sasuke, though I'm sure then you are more then a little confused, am I right?" Sasuke nodded his head slowly, still not quite believing that Naruto is a girl, or even just in disguise as a girl or something.

"Hehe…" The Hokage chuckled lightly to himself, but soon stopped, as he heard some one else knocking on his door.

_**Half an hour earlier at the meeting bridge…**_

Both Sakura and Kakashi were there, but now Sasuke was the one missing.

"Sakura, both of us should head to Naruto's apartment to see if we can find anything, something must be wrong." Sakura nodded, so the two of them left to go to their destination.

When they reached it, they saw the smashed window, therefore deciding to enter that way. When they came in, they saw the burnt door lying on the floor, so they walked into the bedroom and found… nothing.

"Something is wrong here. We should report it to the Hokage immediately." Kakashi said, and Sakura complied.

_**Back to the Hokage's office…**_

_Knock, knock…_

"Who is it?"

"It's Kakashi… and Sakura."

"Alright then, you may enter."

The door swung open and in came Kakashi and Sakura urgently, not noticing the other two people present in the room. "Hokage, something is wrong, we can't find Naruto and now Sasuke has also gone missing…" Kakashi stopped as the Hokage began to laugh lightly. "What's funny?" Kakashi asked in a polite way, after all, it was the Hokage he was talking to.

"Look behind you." Both Sakura and Kakashi looked behind them, and there stood Sasuke. Sakura saw the expression on his face, one which she had never seen there before. He was confused and bewildered.

"What's going on here?"

"Sit down first as what I am about to say may shock you a little." The two of them complied and sat down on the two chairs in front of the Hokage, Kakashi noticed that there was someone else also present in the room, sitting on the couch on the far side of the room.

The Hokage let out a long sigh before beginning. "The person sitting over there… is Naruto." As soon as this was said, the two people in front of him turned around to look. "But, he isn't what you think. In fact, he isn't even a he, he's a she." That was when Naruto decided that she could pull down the hood of the cloak, letting everyone see her as she was. "Her real name is in fact Niina, not Naruto, that was just a name she used when she was in disguise."

Minutes passed where everything and everyone was silent.

Then Kakashi spoke. "Why was she in disguise." When this was said, Niina flinched as she was recalling the memories.

"After she received her… tenant," Kakashi understood what he meant, but the other two genins didn't, but carried on listening." She was taken in by the ANBU. There she lived and was trained, however, Danzou found out about her and her power, so he took her in and began to train her himself, with ROOT. They wanted to make her into a weapon for their own selfish use. The wanted to make her heartless and cold so that they could control her, but to do that, they had to break her, which they managed, but instead of making her cold, they turned her into what she is now, a poor scared girl. When I found out about this, I was enraged, so I took her away from Root, and the ANBU, but she would be found, so I got Jiraiya to place a seal on her. The seal would change her appearance, so that was why she looked, talked and acted like a boy, the Naruto you knew. However, this seal would only last five years at a time, so it would have to be redone after every five years has past. Jiraiya was the only one capable of making the seal, but he was caught up in the west, so that is why she turned back into her true form." The Hokage inhaled a large amount of air as, even though he had said the whole thing slowly, he had hardly taken in any oxygen. He then waited to see the reactions of everyone.

He looked over to where Niina was sitting and saw that she was looking down whilst she was twiddling her index fingers together nervously. He could tell that she wasn't very comfortable at the moment, he knew how she was.

Meanwhile, Sasuke had been staring at Niina for quiet sometime now, to him, she had an air of purity and innocence around her. He had looked into her eyes and saw the emotions that she had felt. He couldn't help but feel bad for her.

Minutes later, the Third spoke. "I think it'll be best if Sakura and Sasuke leave now, I need to talk to Kakashi about Niina." The former two then left the room slowly, stealing last glances of Niina.

"Kakashi…"

"Yes?"

"Look after Niina, she is very fragile. She has been through a lot and it won't take a lot to bring her down. So please, promise that you'll take care of her, at least until Jiraiya returns."

"I promise. But…"

"But what?"

"I was going to tell them today that I have entered them into the chuunin exams, do you think that they should still go through with it?"

"The chuunin exams are a few weeks away, so if the three of them bond, then I think that they'll be fine. Niina just needs to get out there, and see that not everyone will want to use her."

"Yes Hokage." Kakashi then vanished in a _poof_, leaving Sarutobi and Niina together in the room.

"Niina. Why don't you come over here and sit." His hand motioned for her to one of the chairs in front of him. She complied silently.

"Are you alright with them knowing? They'll be good to you, you just need to give them a chance."

"Y-yes, I'm fine."

Sarutobi smiled before he stood up and walked over to her. When he reached her, he bent down to her level and said, "Being out in the open will be good for you. Just be careful."

"H-hai."

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**Hope you all enjoyed this chapter...**


	3. Thank You

**Okay guys, I hope you enjoy this... **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto **(This wasn't the part that I wanted you to enjoy, especially as this is the part that makes me sad)

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__The next day..._**

_Knock,knock..._

Niina walked wearily over to her door to look through the eye piece to see who it was. She saw that it was Sasuke so she slowly opened the door, only peeping her head round it.

"H-hello Sasuke."

"Hello Niina… Um, you wanna go and get something to eat?" (This isn't a date, he's just trying to be friendly, for once, also he wants to find out some stuff about her)

"Um… okay… J-just wait a s-second." Niina closed the door gently and put her shoes on, before opening the door again, closing and locking it behind her. The two then began walking, not really sure where to.

"So, do you still like ramen?"

"Uh huh…" So the two then made their way over to Ichiraku. Once there, they sat down and waited for their order to be taken. Ayame saw them so she went over to them.

"So who's this Sasuke?"

"This is Niina." Ayame smiled and bent over the counter to whisper something in Sasuke's ear.

"She's very pretty, nice choice." Upon hearing this, Sasuke's eyes widened and a got a slight tint of pink on his cheeks, though it wasn't noticeable.

"No no, it's not like that!" Ayame just laughed before asking what they wanted; both of them choosing misu ramen. Sasuke found that Niina was a lot different then Naruto; she was quiet, shy, sensible, gentle and he remembered what the Hokage had said the previous day, so he assumed that she was also very strong. He also saw that she didn't slurp up the ramen in one go, but ate it slowly and sensibly with her head bowed down. He also noticed that she didn't eat thirty bowls, but stuck to a single bowl. But the thing that stuck out the most was that he hadn't seen her smile yet, that was definitely a sign that Naruto was her opposite. He also hadn't seen her right eye, but that was just because her fringe was covering it.

When the two finished their ramen and paid, they left and took a walk in the park, just for the sake of it. Sasuke was waling in his casual manner, whilst Niina was taking short steps and had her left arm down her side and her elbow was being held by her right arm, her back also being slightly hunched over. She was very weary of her surroundings

The silence between the two was beginning to get awkward so Sasuke decided to ask a question which had been bugging him. "Why didn't you tell us about… you know…"

"I… I was scared…"

"Why were you scared?"

"So m-many people have h-hurt me and I didn't kn-know how you would t-take it. I was h-happy being Naruto… I wasn't so s-scared when I was b-behind my m-mask." Sasuke nodded in understanding. Sasuke then accompanied Niina back home, said his good byes and left to go back to his own home, all the while thinking, _She's been through so much, and it has affected her greatly… I'll make sure that nothing bad ever happens to her again._

However, he was being watched by someone who was sitting up in a nearby tree. He looked up from his orange book and thought, _well, well Sasuke… It's nice to see the human side of you for once… I hope it'll be seen again tomorrow in training…_

_**Later that day when it was dark…**_

Sasuke was out walking because he needed some fresh air, and he needed some time to think, but not wanting to do that all alone in the Uchiha manor. He was walking along a road which had numerous allies and streets attached to it, and found that there weren't any people around, which was rather odd he thought. He then heard a noise coming from an ally a bit further up. As he got closer, he heard muffles screams and begging, along with menacing laughter. When he got to the ally, her saw two men, one of them holding something up against the wall, whilst the other was just standing by his side, laughing.

"The less you struggle the less it'll hurt…" The first one said.

"N-no…. Please… d-don't…" Sasuke recognised that voice and he felt the rage begin to grow inside of him, until he couldn't keep it in any longer. He quickly ran over to them, at a speed which couldn't be seen by non-shinobi, so the first man didn't see what hit him, literally, as Sasuke had punched the guy as hard as he could in the cheek, sending him flying a couple feet back, landing on a pile of garbage bags. When this happened, the person he was holding fell to the ground, crying.

The other man then stood their frozen, until he saw that it was just a kid who got a lucky punch. He smirked and began making his way over to him, however, he wouldn't get the chance to get any closer, as Sasuke had just completed a number of hand seals, and after shouting the jutsu, he inhaled and blew out a giant fireball, which hit the man dead on, knocking him unconscious to the ground. Sasuke smiled to himself before he realised why he had done that in the first place.

He ran over to her and embraced her in a hug. "Shh… it's okay, Niina… I'm here… I won't let anyone hurt you…"

Niina looked up and recognised Sasuke before she buried herself in his chest, letting all of her tears flow from her eyes, drenching his shirt.

As the tears began to slow down, Sasuke stood up and picked Niina up into a bridal style carrying position. He then carried her back to her apartment. When he reached it, he lay her down on her bed, whilst he brought in a chair and sat down on it.

Niina looked up at her savior. "Thank you…" She then fell asleep. Sasuke smiled to himself before, he too, fell asleep.

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**Awww... Sasuke is a hero... Just to make this clear to everyone: SASUKE IS JUST TRYING TO GET HER TO FIT IN! And yes, I know he seems a bit OCish... okay, a lot... Until next time...**


	4. Your Choice

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.** (Are they trying to rub it in our faces by making us say this or what... They're so mean)

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Sasuke woke the next morning and found that he wasn't in his bedroom, in fact, he wasn't even in his own house. He found that he had been sleeping in a chair, which would explain the slight back ache which he had. He then remembered what had happened the night before and quickly looked over to the bed next to where he was sitting, but found it empty and done.

He quickly caught a scent with his nose and followed it, leading himself unconsciously to the kitchen. There he found Niina cooking something, though he couldn't tell what as her back was hiding it.

"When did you get up?"

Niina jumped slightly before turning around to see that it was Sasuke who had spoken. "Not t-too long ago…" Sasuke just nodded as he sat down on one of the chairs by the eating table, stretching his arms back and letting out a yawn, but somehow managing to pull of the Uchiha charm whilst doing it.

"Th-thank you…"

"Huh? What for?..."

"F-for saving me y-yesterday…" She felt a warm tear slide down from her face as she thought of what would have happened if Sasuke had not come and save her. She knew what their intentions were, and she was too scared to protect herself, in fear of harming them. She knew she could have taken care of them, but from what she had seen during her training, she… deep down inside… that she wouldn't be able to stop herself, as all of the emotions which she had stored up inside would have been released on those two men. She didn't want that to happen.

"It's alright… what are teammates for anyway…" Niina just nodded as she placed two plates on the table, one in front of Sasuke, and one in front of t he seat which she was about to sit in. She sat down and began to eat, as did Sasuke, in complete silence.

When the two were done, Niina stood up again, taking the two now empty plates, walked over to the sink and began to wash up, drying the dishes as she finished.

Meanwhile, Sasuke had taken the chance to look around the room. At the moment he was staring at a photo which had a woman standing in it, smiling. She was very beautiful; she had long silver hair which was the same length as Niina's and she had shimmering silver eyes. She also had a look of innocence and purity about her, making it seem like she was connected somehow to Niina.

"Who's this in the photo, Niina?" Said girl stopped what she was doing and walked over to Sasuke to look at the photo. He looked to see what her facial expression was and found that it had saddened slightly.

"Sh-she was my mother…"

He now regretted asking the question but couldn't help but ponder where Niina had gotten her looks from, as she didn't look that much like her mother, apart from the shape of her face and her figure. But the hair and eye colour was definitely not from her. "Who's your father then?"

Niina's already saddened face became even more depressing. Sasuke mentally kicked himself in the butt again for asking, but he really wanted to know, and if and Uchiha wants something, then they'll do whatever it takes to know, no matter how long it takes. But he regretted his curiosity. "Don't worry, you don't have to answer it if you don't want to." He tried to reassure, but he still wanted to know.

Niina nodded before she went back to where she was.

"By the way, we're supposed to meet Kakashi-sensei at the bridge soon. Are you sure that you don't mind, you know…" Sasuke still didn't know how to put it… oh well, she knew what he meant.

"Y-yes… I'm sure… But I'll w-wear my cloak."

So the two left to go to the meeting point, Niina with her cloak covering every part of her body, you wouldn't even know if it was a girl or a boy, so she received some curious or confused stairs as they made their way to the bridge. Sakura was already there waiting and when she saw Sasuke, she immediately ran up to him and asked if he wanted to go out once today's work was finished, but he gently reclined… okay, so he just said 'no'. Her face dropped for a second but was quickly back up to its cheery mood when she noticed that Sasuke had company. She questioned who it was before Sasuke hit himself in the head for her being so forgetful.

"Our teammate…" He said monotonously. Sakura adopted a thinking position for a few seconds before it hit her. She had thought that the previous day had been a dream of some sort, but now it was obvious that it wasn't. She also smacked herself in the head for being so stupid.

So the three of them sat by the bridge, waiting… waiting… and waiting. The time was passing so slowly for them, that they had all three fallen asleep when their sensei arrived in his usual manner, with his nose deep down into his book.

"Yo. Sorry I'm late guys, but I was just…" Kakashi stopped as he saw that the three genin were fast asleep. But then Sakura stirred, waking up instantly and rubbing her eye with her hand sleepily.

"You're late… Kakashi-sensei." She managed to say whilst yawning, but then she heard some rustling and murmuring coming from beside her. She turned and saw that the noise was coming from Niina. "N-no… Stop… Pl-please… No…" She whispered, but you could here that she was pleading. Kakashi had also noticed so he went over and woke her up. When she did wake up, she immediately sat up with sweat evident on her forehead.

"You okay?" Kakashi asked, you could tell by the sound of his voice that he was generally concerned.

"Y-yes… I'm fine… It was j-just a bad dream… just a bad dream…" The last part she said to herself, almost as a reassurance.

"Good…" By now, Sasuke was also awake. "Now, the reason I wanted you all here was because I have some great news to tell you all…" He paused for a moment to emphasize what he was about to say. "… I have decided to enter you all into the chuunin exams." He finished it off with one of his eye smiles.

"Um, sensei. Are you sure that we're ready for this, I mean, there is always next year." Sakura stammered.

"If I didn't think that you were all ready, then I wouldn't have entered you all, now would. It would be rather stupid if I did. Anyway, enough of that, here are a couple of forms which you will need to sign and hand in. Remember that this is your own choice and no-one is forcing you to do this. You and you alone can't decide whether or not you want to do this.

The thoughts of the three genin were all different. Sasuke was thinking; _If I don't do this, then I'll have to wait longer before I'll be able to defeat Itachi…_ Sakura was thinking; _I don't know if I'm string enough… but I want to show Sasuke that I am, but if I do, then who knows what could happen…_ Whilst Niina was thinking; _I know that I'm strong enough to do this, but I don't know if I'll be able to handle the pressure… I don't want to have to hurt anyone and I don't want to lose control again…_

Kakashi had noticed the expression of his three students. "You have two weeks to decide, so you don't have to choose right here at this very moment." And with that he was gone in a _poof_.

Niina then stood up and started to walk out into the forest.

"Where are yo going Niina?" Sakura called out.

"T-to train…"

"Well, Sasuke, since we're alone and all, do you want to go out on a date with me?"

"…No." Sakura let out the breath she had been holding in defeat. Yet another rejection from her love. She looked up again and found that Sasuke was walking away, in the direction of the market.

"Guess I'll be going home then…" She murmured to herself as she stood up and left as well.

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**Well there you go. But I have a question to ask; does anyone know of any good fics where Naruto has gone 'bad' or something, as I really need to read one. (okay, so I don't need to but I really really want to) Thanks again, until next time...**


	5. Hidden Ability

**Okay, when you read about the guitar playing along with the singing, the song that will be heard is called 'hello' by** **evanescence and if you want to hear it, you can find it on: ****h t t p / w w w . y o u t u b e . c o m / w a t c h ? v I h 6 1 M J 7 2 v 1 Y** (no spaces whatsoever) **but the piano music will be played by a guitar instead. It doesn't really have anything to do with the fic, but it will suit it.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, no matter how much I would like to.**

**Enjoy…**

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Sasuke wasn't actually on his way to the market, he just followed that path so that Sakura wouldn't get suspicious or anything. What he really intended to do was go after Niina to watch her train, as he hadn't yet witnessed what she was capable of, or even her style. He knew nothing about her when it came to her being a kunoichi, so that was why he was going to go after her. 

He hadn't yet been able to find her, but he had covered a decent area and knew that with every step that he took, he was getting nearer. He wanted to know what was Niina, he needed to know. He was so intrigued about her that he put all thoughts aside and concentrated on finding out the truth about her. That was his goal, along with the initial first two he had; kill his brother and revive his clan, but since he knew he couldn't do either of those two at the moment, he would do the third option.

It was then that he heard a guitar being played. He followed it whilst listening to its chords. It was playing a sad song, one that really brought out ones emotions, but an Uchiha wouldn't show that, so he didn't, he kept it to himself as he had been taught to. Keeping his emotions to himself is what has gotten him to where he was now. If he had let them out, he would have been a mess, one that couldn't be cleaned up.

He approached a waterfall and saw a blond haired girl sitting on a rock near the bottom of the waterfall, with a guitar in her hand, playing the song that Sasuke had heard earlier. He hid in a tree, only just close enough to see what she was doing.

Niina then stopped playing and put her hands together in the sign of a cross and there was a _poof_ of smoke next her, from it, when it subsided, appeared a clone of Niina. Said clone then took the guitar and began playing the same song, as the real Niina stepped onto the water. What surprised Sasuke was that she didn't fall in, but that she was just walking on the surface, each step she took was small and graceful. She stopped in the center and took in a long breath, closing her eyes and putting her hands together in front of her.

The guitar playing stopped for a second before it began again, but this time it was a different tune, and the clone began to sing along to it, her voice so beautiful that you would be a fool to try and not listen to her song. You could tell that the song came from deep within and that it had some meaning, it really made you think.

Then the real Niina, who was still on the water began to move gracefully around like a ballerina, spinning around with her arms moving around her in a smooth flowing manner, like this was all some sort of intricate dance. Her eyes were still shut but you could tell that she felt calmer then she usually would, like this was how she expressed herself.

To finish off the captivating dance, strands of water from below Niina began to follow the patterns which her arms were making, swirling around in the air and making it all mesmerizing. When the song stopped, as did Niina's dance, and the strands of water slowly made their way back to where they came from. She stood still, with her head bowed down her hands together in a praying position.

Niina then made her way back to where her clone sat and took the guitar right before the clone _poofed_ away. She then sat down on the same rock, but instead of playing the guitar, she began playing a flute, which had been lying next to the rock. Again, this song was full of sadness and despair.

Sasuke decided that it was time to leave her be as it was obvious that she needed to be alone if she went to the trouble to get so far away from the village. He made sure not to make any noise, in fear of disturbing her, but thankfully, he got away and quickly ran back towards the Uchiha estate.

_**Next day…**_

_Knock, knock…_

"Enter… Ah, Sasuke, what brings you here today?"

"Well, Hokage… I was wandering, well…"

"Spit it out now boy." Sarutobi said jokingly.

"About Niina… what is it that she can do, exactly?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, yesterday… I saw her by a waterfall far out in the forest. She was doing this dance thing along to some music on the water. Then I saw that she was able to manipulate the water… I don't really know how to describe it…"

The Hokage smiled a small smile before replying, "Well, Sasuke. What you saw yesterday was what Niina does when she feels that she needs to prove to herself that she is in control of herself. It is also a way for her mind to get away from everything, easing her worries."

"But how was she able to do all of it? It didn't look like she was using any chakra to move the water. It was almost as if it was moving on its own."

"That, I'm afraid, is not for me to say. If Niina feels that she can tell you then she will... I must also thank you deeply for what you did the other night. I heard about it, and… well, she is very dear to me and I don't want any harm to come to her, so I'm grateful that you did that for her." The Hokage ended this with a sincere smile. Sasuke nodded before he left the office.

Two hours later, there was another knock on the Hokages door, and when he gave permission for entry, he was surprised to see that it was Kakashi.

"Kakashi? I wasn't expecting to see you here."

Kakashi gave him an eye smile before sitting down on one of the chairs which were situated on the other side of the Hokages desk. "Well, I wanted to ask you something…"

"Ask away."

"It's about Niina…" He stopped when he saw Sarutobi smiling. He raised an eyebrow in a questioning manner.

"Well, it's just that Sasuke, and Sakura were also here earlier to ask me about Niina."

"Oh really, what did they want to know?"

"Well, Sasuke asked about something he had seen Niina do…" Sarutobi saw Kakashis eyebrow rise again. "… He saw her perform part of her bloodline, though it was only a minor part of it, though I didn't tell him about the bloodline, only why she was doing it. As for Sakura, she just asked about the seal and if Niina had always been a girl. So what is it that you want to know?"

Kakashi sat there for a few seconds, forgetting what he was going to ask. So he asked the new question which had formed in his mind. "Wait, you said that she has a bloodline, which one would that be?"

"She is probably the last living person who has the bloodline. It is known as the Shiroyuri (White Lily)."

"I've never heard of that, not even remotely… So who were her parents then?"

The Third let out a long sigh before he began to answer. "Her mother's name was Junshin Ayaka (Purity Colour-flower), she was the one whom Niina got her bloodline limit from. As for her father, he was… your sensei." When Kakashi heard this, his one visible eye went as wide as humanly possible. _She… she's my sensei's daughter?... How could I not see the resemblance, even when she was in disguise…_

"Now I know this must have come as quite a shock to you, but that is the truth." Kakashi slowly nodded, though he wasn't really listening to what the Third was saying.

* * *

**Yeah, I know that the father bit is way over used, but I wanted it to be this way... Until next time...**

**(Damn, I need to find something else to say, as 'Until next time' is too over used by me now and it is getting kind of cheesy, ur... just ignore me)**


	6. Sand Collision

**Just to let you all know, I won't be able to post any chapters withín the next couple of days as I will be travelling and stuff. I will still be writing, thank kami. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this...**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto **(But one day I will...)

* * *

Not much had happened during the following week, team seven had been training together, Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke all trying to get Niina to open up a bit more, with little success. Niina had carried on with wearing her cloak, only removing it when she was at her apartment, or out deep in the forest, training with the rest of her team or by herself. No-one else had found out about her yet, and she was thankful for that. But she knew that they would eventually find out, when she would partake in the chuunin exams, which they were only one week away from. She found it hard to concentrate, as she kept on thinking how everyone would react to seeing her and finding out. But what if they didn't tell them that Naruto was really her, what if they just avoided the question whenever it came up, that could work for her, though she knew that it would be difficult for the four of them to change the subject everytime. They would eventually get suspicious, but then again, they would have no idea what would be going on. All the while thinking this, she found more positive points then negative, so she would ask her team for the one favour; if they could not tell anyone else about her.

Currently, the three were going through intends aim practice with Kakashi, in both shurikan and kunai. Kakashi decided mainly to do this so that Niina would concentrate more on her aim then worry about everything. Also, he wanted to compare all of their abilities with the simple throwing weapons.

As always, Sasuke's was spot on and his speed in which he accomplished it was far above average for a genin. Sakura's aim was also pretty good, she just took longer to throw the weapons. As for Niina, well it seemed that she had her mind elsewhere as she was just sitting down cross legged on the ground, her chin resting on her left hand as she would just throw her shurikan (she had already finished with her kunai practice), all of them hitting the bulls' eye of her targets. It was obvious that she had been threw rigorous training by that.

Kakashi was about to go and ask her about her training, before a though passed threw his mind. She probably didn't want to talk about her past from what he learnt the day when he had found out about Niina. Though he was glad that she had decided that she didn't need the seal anymore, even if she was constantly wearing an over sized cloak.

"Alright guys, that's enough for today. You're all free to go and do what you choose." Kakashi then disappeared in his usual manner, involving smoke.

All three looked at each other before they made their way back together. They were far out in the deepest part of the training grounds, where no-one could be bothered to go for training, that was why they were there, because no-one else was, so Niina would be able to remove her cloak. She had thanked them numerous times for their kindness and had asked she could repay them, but their answer was always the same, 'we're teammates and we're friends, that is what we do, so you don't have to thank us.' She would just nod and leave it at that.

However, when the three made it back into the village, they heard the scream of a child, and therefore followed the noise to see where and who it came from. When they made it to the ally, they found Konohamaru being held up by his shirt by a large guy who seemed to be wearing some sort of black cat suit. Behind him was a girl who had her blond hair tied up into four bunches, wearing a white dress with fish net underneath. Konohamaru's two friends, Udon and Moegi were also there, but they were whimpering by a little tree.

"Put me down you big ugly bully!" Shouted Konohamaru as he was swinging his arms from side to side, making no progress whatsoever. The guy holding him just smirked.

"Just put him down Kankorou. We don't need any trouble here."

"Oh but Temari, I just want a little fun. Besides, he deserves it for running into me."

"Hey, it wasn't my fault that I didn't see you! But how I missed a big guy like you I'll never know!" The cat suited man, named Kankorou, scowled before pulling back his free hand, about to punch Konohamaru right in the face, but he stopped it when he had been hit in the head by a rock thrown by someone. Kankorou desperately looked around to see who threw the rock when he laid his eyes on Sasuke, who smirked back at him.

"I'd put him down if I were you, you know." Sasuke said confidently.

Temari looked up to see who it was and one thought passed through her mind, _he's cute…_

"Didn't you hear what he said? He told you to let go of me, so let GO!" Kankorou was now glaring daggers at the spoilt little brat, until he noticed a figure wearing a large black cloak, move next to the guy who had previously thrown the rock at him. He was curious to say the least, so he ignored the rants coming from the brat in his hands. The figure then stopped moving only a couple of meters away from him, standing as still as, well, something that doesn't move., his mind couldn't really think of anything like that.

He then felt a slight trembling beneath him, he quickly glimpsed down and looked up again at the figure, now finding that he could see a glowing eye. The eye was brown and it looked like it was the persons left, though he could not think why that mattered.

The trembling came again, and he hurriedly looked down and saw that the ground began to crack slightly. He dropped Konohamaru from the shock, and jumped back so that he was standing next to his sister.

As soon as this happened; the glowing eye stopped glowing and the ground stopped cracking, leaving cracks in the ground as proof that it had happened. However, the next thing he heard was the one thing that made him the most scared.

"Kankorou. I'll kill you if you attract attention like that again."

Said person looked up to a tree and found that his brother was standing upside down, hanging from one of the branches.

"Y-yes… I'm s-sorry Gaara… It w-won't h-happen again…"

Gaara then disappeared in a swirl of sand, only to reappear in between his two siblings. He looked absolutely bored to death, his sleep ridden eyes didn't help the matter as you saw the deep black lines around them. Just by looking at him you would feel feeble, which is exactly what Niina was feeling at the moment; feeble.

"What is your name?" Gaara asked.

Sasuke, thinking that he was talking to him, answered the question. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke."

"I didn't mean you, I meant the person with the cloak on." Gaara stated in a quiet, yet deadly voice. Sasuke glared at him for a second, but knew that it was a good question, as he was also stunned by what Niina had just done, though he had not seen her glowing eye, but somehow knew it was her that made the ground crack like it did.

Sasuke just looked down, but not in defeat, quite the contrary, he was smirking whilst shaking his head slowly from side to side. "I'm sorry, I can't tell you that." He then looked up sat that he would be able to see the reaction he would get, but was surprised to see that Gaara just looked the same as he had done when he had asked the question. Sasuke's eye twitched a single time before he recomposed himself. He turned his back to the three and made his way to his teammates.

Throughout the whole thing, Sakura had just been standing on the side, watching the whole ideal and she had seen the glowing eye. She hadn't seen what Sasuke had seen the previous week, so she was a little confused, though she quickly passed it off as a jutsu of some sort.

Sasuke then stopped in between his two teammates and said, "I think it is time for us to leave." And so the three did. The sand siblings also left, but went in the opposite direction from tam seven.

* * *

**Okay, so that was it... again, if anyone knows of any good fics with Naruto not being the nice guy, I'd be mighty appreciative if any of ya'll told me 'bout 'em... until next time...**

**Note to self: 1-get new catch phrase**

** 2-update other fics**


	7. Chuunin part one

Hello everyone... I'm so so so sorry that I have been out for a month. You can find an apology and reasoning and stuff on my bio. But... I have four new chapters for this fic and I hope that helps... also, I have to do some major tidying up of my room and I got a whole load of prep to do, so... I hope you enjoy these next chapters...

Disclaimer: (sits in the corner, crying) I... don't... own... NARUTO! (bursts out crying, slowly drowing in her tears)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy...

* * *

It was the day before the chuunin exams would begin. Team seven had decided to meet up to discuss the next day. The three of them were at their hidden training ground deep in the forest.

"So, we've all decided to take part, is that right?" Sasuke began. He received two nods from his female teammates. "Good."

"So what do you think will happen?" Sakura asked, with a hint of doubt in her voice, though she had decided to take part, no matter how much her gut told her not to.

"I'm not sure, but they'll probably test both our strength and our mind, so we must be prepared."

"But, what if we get split up, I mean, then we won't be able to contact each other, or anything." Sakura, again, said with a hint of doubt.

"Hmm, I hadn't thought of that…"

"W-what if we used th-these?" Niina suggested as she held out a pair of glasses. Her two teammates looked at her questionably. She then took in a deep breath and began to explain. "W-well, we'll all have a p-pair each. On the corner of the frame, there is a-a tiny camera, which c-can't be seen. Th-there is also a tiny ear piece r-right above where your ear w-would be. The glass lens, i-is actually a t-tiny screen which can o-only be seen when looked at it carefully, a-and it can't be seen from the o-outside." She finished and looked wearily as the others there who seemed to have adopted their own thinking positions. They then looked at her in unison, with a smile spreading across their faces.

"That's good. But won't they get a bit suspicious if we are all wearing the same glasses?" Again, Sakura was pointing out the faults, but Sasuke had an idea, so he explained.

_**The next day…**_

Team seven had just reached the building where they were to go. They stood just outside for a few minutes, just to soak everything in, before they entered. They were to meet in room 301, which was on the third floor, so they headed up the stairs.

They stopped on the first floor and saw a large crowd of people trying to enter through a door which had the digits 301 above the frame. However, they weren't able to enter as there stood to tall genins, blocking the door, telling them all that they should just go home as they wouldn't make it through and that it was pointless for them to try.

However, this didn't bode well with Sasuke, he narrowed his eyes and was about to make his way over to the two and 'make' them let them through, but he was stopped by Niina, who was still wearing her cloak. He looked at her questionably, with a slightly annoyed expression on his face.

"What? We gotta get through…"

Niina moved her head closer to his ears to whisper something so that no-one else would hear her. She also motioned for Sakura moved her head closer, and she complied.

"This is a g-genjutsu, this is only room 201 and w-we need to get upstairs." The other two nodded, so they made their way towards the stairs, but were stopped when a guy who had a bowl cut and was wearing green spandex. The one thing that stood out the most was his eyebrows, which looked like furry black caterpillars.

He then stood still and gave them, what looked like, a nice guy pose, showing off his blinding white teeth.

"Sakura, will you be my girlfriend?" Immediately, Sakura's face fell, thinking, _why is it that it is only the weird people that fall for me, and not Sasuke-kun…_

"I promise that I'll protect you with my life!"

Sakura looked up at him with a vein clearly showing on her forehead, her face slowly turning red and her fist began to shake. "No way would I go out with you!"

Just as it was said, or more like shouted, the spandex guy looked down on the floor, defeated. Then, a guy who had long brown hair, pupil-less white eyes and wearing clothing which consisted of natural colours and bandaging, came up behind.

"What's taking so long Lee?" The green spandex guy, Lee, looked back at his teammate, and all of the gloom was lost from his face.

"Oh hi Neji. I was just asking out Sakura-chan here."

Neji narrowed his eyes, looking over at team seven, when they stopped on Sasuke. "What is your name?" He asked, or more like demanded.

"Isn't it rude to ask for someone else's name before stating your own?" Sasuke ended that with a smug look, but Neji's turned from calm to enraged, just like that.

"Come on guys, we better get to room 301." So he started walking towards the stairs again with his teammates. But they were, again, stopped by Lee.

"My name is Rock Lee, and you must be Uchiha Sasuke. I believe that that is the proper way, is it not?"

"Yes. But what is it that you want, as we would very much like to get to the examination room."

"Fight me Sasuke, so that I can prove that hard work beats geniuses." Rock Lee then got into a taijutsu stance, ready for combat. Sasuke was also about to, but was stopped by Niina, still hiding in her cloak.

"Sasuke, we need to g-get going, before we're l-late." Her voice was only just loud enough for him to hear. But a certain Neji also heard.

"Hinata, is that you hiding behind that cloak? What are you doing with the Uchiha and Haruno, instead of being with your teammates?"

"Sorry to disappoint you, but this isn't Hinata." And with that, team seven left and finally were able to walk up the stairs. They paused for a second before entering the door which was correctly labeled 301.

Inside, there saw that there were dozens upon dozens of genin teams already seated and chattering. They had known that there would be many teams, but this was just… too much.

Suddenly, Sasuke felt someone grab his arm, and looked to see who it was and saw that it was none other then Sakura's rival, Ino.

"Hey Sasuke-kun. I bet you missed be because I missed you. I bet that forehead-girl over there must have been really annoying, with bugging you all the time."

"Hey Ino-pig, get off of Sasuke-kun, he doesn't want you 'bugging' him." She then stuck her tongue out whilst putting a finger to her eyes and pulling it down.

"Girls… so troublesome." Shikamaru had just entered the room, accompanied by Choji who was munching on his infamous chips. "So, who's that in the cloak, and where's Naruto?"

Both Sakura and Sasuke looked at each other, before Ino butted in.

"Hey Sasuke-kun, I didn't know you wore glasses… And how come Sakura's wearing glasses as well, she doesn't need them."

"Hn… I lost my contact lenses, so Niina lent me a pair of hers. But then Sakura decided to copy me…" Sasuke said all of this is a quiet and annoyed voice, following it with a scowl to pull it off, and thankfully, it worked.

"Hah! I see that the dead last found out that he wasn't good enough to be a chuunin." "Bark… bark, bark!" Kiba, along with the rest of his team had entered the room. Akamaru was also along. "Or is he hiding under that cloak, so that we won't see how scared he is…" Kiba was about to jump over and remove the hood of the cloak, but he was stopped by Sasuke, who had grabbed the hood of Kiba's own jacket, stopping him in mid air, making him fall to the ground clumsily.

"Hey Sasuke! What was that for?! You trying to cover something up?"

"So troublesome…" _But I would like to know who is under that cloak. Naruto's figure is all wrong to fit the figure of the person in the cloak… It looks more like a girl, but I might be mistaken…_

Ino's curiosity got the best of her, as she was conveniently standing next to the cloaked figure. Her hand slowly made it's way to the cloak, and when it was only millimeters away, she pulled the hood down and stared in shock.

"Eep!" Niina squeaked as she put her hands up around her face, attempting to hide it. Sasuke and Sakura immediately leaped to her side and pulled up her hood. Sakura was comforting her whilst Sasuke began shouting at Ino.

"What was that for?! Isn't it obvious that if someone is wearing a hood or whatever, they do NOT want people doing stuff like THAT to them?!" Ino began to cower behind her teammates as she had never seen her Sasuke act like this, he had always been so cool and relaxed when it came to emotions.

"It's not a clever idea for rookies as yourselves to make too much commotion. You wouldn't want to get on the bad side of everyone here, would you?" A silver haired guy had walked over to the rooky nine.

"Who are you?" Kiba dared.

"Me? Why my name is Yoshino Kabuto. And these here, are my info cards. Care to take a look?" The man, now named Kabuto, held up a pack of cards to the nine. They all just stared at it before Kina broke the silence.

"But they are all blank."

"I know, but when I put some of my chakra into them, all of the information which I have will appear. Now, is there anyone whom you wish to gain the knowledge of?"

Sasuke came up first. "Gaara and Rock Lee"

"Hey, that's no fun, you already know their names. No matter." Kabuto then picked up two cards from his stack and forced some of his chakra into them, making them glow blue for a second.

"Ok, first up is Gaara of the sand. Nothing is know of his taijutsu or genjutsu, but his ninjutsu is above average. For missions, he has done 23 D rank, and a B rank, wow, that's amazing for a genin. But the thing that amazes me the most is that he has always returned back from his missions completely unharmed." Gasps were heard from around, but Kabuto continued. "Ok, next up is Rock Lee. He has no Ninjutsu or genjutsu stats whatsoever, but his taijutsu is incredibly high, the highest I have ever seen for any genin. But it seems that he has no chakra. His missions are that of an average genin… Now, is there anyone else who wants to gain the knowledge of anyone else?"

Kiba walked up to Kabuto and said, "Uzumaki Naruto, and, the girl hiding under the cloak over there…" He pointed to Niina, Kabuto following his hand, smiled.

"So, you wish to know her name as well, this shall be more fun." Kabuto then pulled up another two cards, and did the same process as last time. "Ok then… hmm… it seems that there is nothing on this 'Naruto' person… that's strange, oh well, onto the next person. Her name is Junshin Kazama Niina, but that is all I know of her." Everyone around was dumbstruck, they didn't know what to say. They didn't know anything about her, but that could be seen as dangerous, as she had probably been able to hide her strengths from everyone.

_WHAM!_

"Alright people, get to your seats. My name is Morino Ibiki, and I'll be your instructor for the first test of the chuunin exams. The test is about to begin." Everyone got to their assigned seats within two seconds. "Good, now let me explain the rules…"


	8. Chuunin part two

"Alright people, begin!" Everyone flipped their paper over to begin. But they all just stared at the paper in front of them, completely stuck as they could only answer about one of the nine questions, if they were lucky. They had been told that they would each begin with ten points, and you would lose a point for every question that you got wrong and you would lose three if you got caught cheating. And the teams with the highest points would get through. If one member of the team got zero points, then the whole team would be out, the same thing would happen if a person got caught three times for cheating. This test would be a lot harder then anyone thought it would be.

_How are they expecting normal genins to be able to answer these questions… Even I can't and I got top marks in the academic tests back at the academy…_ Sakura thought to herself._ There must something else to this… Come on, think, THINK!... I hope that the others will figure this out…_ She then looked up to see her two teammates. She saw Sasuke handling the test the same way as she was. But when she looked at Niina, she saw that she was down and writing like there was no tomorrow. _Niina knows the answers? But, that must mean that she's a genius or something… Or maybe there's a catch to all of this… hmm…_

Over to Niina. She knew the answers to all of the nine questions present, but she also knew that they were much to hard for any chuunin to answer, which wouldn't make any sense unless they were trying to get everyone to fail, save there was something else that they wanted everyone to do. But the question was what. She had looked behind to find her two teammates staring at their papers, with a completely blank expression on their face. She only hope that they would somehow figure out the real meaning of the test.

"Number 32, you fail, along with numbers 12 and 57." That was only the beginning, as more teams were being disqualified shortly afterwards.

Sasuke was baffled at what to do, so he put his hands to his face but then he realised that he was wearing the glasses which Niina had given him. _Glasses… hmm, the instructor said that we would lose points if we caught cheating… that's it 'if we were caught', he never said that we weren't allowed to cheat, he just said that we weren't allowed to get caught. That makes much more sense, with these questions being this hard and all. It looks like Niina got, but it looks like Sakura still hasn't figured it out yet. Jeez, for someone so smart she sure is dumb…_ Sasuke then flicked the tiny head phone part of his glasses to see if Sakura would respond.

_Ow, what was that?! I just heard a weird sound in my ear… _Sakura then placed a hand over her ear and felt her glasses. _The headphone… _She looked around frantically and saw that Sasuke was retracting his hand from his set of glasses._ What?... what's he up to… does he want me to cheat? But the instructor said that we weren't allowed to cheat… No wait, he said that we couldn't get caught… Thank you Sasuke…_ She then began to answer the questions after activating the screen on her glasses, along with Sasuke.

Meanwhile, Ibiki had been studying the expressions of everyone in front of him. He had noticed something strange going on with that team seven. The cloaked one seemed to be able to do the test paper, which, according to him, was very impressive. He guessed that the other two who wearing the same glasses as the cloaked figure would be his or hers teammates, and they had finally somehow been able to answer the questions. He would look into their method later, but in the meanwhile, he had more teams to disqualify.

"Numbers 23, 27 and 44… disqualified!"

He then looked down at his watch and saw that it was time to give out the last 'question'. "Alright people, it is time for me to give you all the last question. But before I do that, is there anyone here who wishes to leave?"

"Why would we do that?" The blond from earlier, Temari, shouted out, but immediately covered her mouth with her hands as she realised just how loud she shouted it.

"Well, because if you were to get the question wring, then you would stay a genin for the rest of your career, as you will not be able to take part in another chuunin exam. That will include everyone in your group."

"But, that's never happened before…"

"I'm new around here and I'm the one who is allowed do that." Ibiki finished with a smug look on his face. His smile grew as people and team began to leave, with expressions of defeat present on their faces. Over half of the genins had left the room, but there were still to many for Ibiki's liking. He was sure that the team he had been thinking about earlier would crack, as the cloaked one seemed to be a wretch and would give up any second.

Sasuke had also seen the stress Niina was under, but was shocked nonetheless, when she began raising her hand. He didn't think that after all this, she would just give up. While Ibiki was smirking as he thought that he had guessed right. He was about to disqualify that team, but was stopped when she began to talk.

"Um… I d-don't think that anyone else is g-going to go, so would you please j-just tell us th-the last question… p-please…" She could feel her cheeks burning up, but she was proud, very proud, of herself for speaking up and she mentally gave herself a pat on the back. But that didn't stop her from ducking slightly down from all of the attention.

"Alright, fair enough… you all… PASS!" There was a minute of complete and utter silence due to the shock and confusion. But when the concept had sunk in, he heard shouts of 'how' and 'what do you mean' and the sort. "There is no tenth question, and the tests papers that you all did don't mean a thing. You had to look underneath the underneath. We wanted to test your information gathering skills, i.e. you were allowed to cheat, but you had to make sure that you didn't get caught, because if you did, then you would have been disqualified. The last question was one of my own. It was to test if you would do anything to get to the next round, no matter the consequences. This would show us how you would handle a mission, if you would do what it took, or simply give up. You guys all risked staying as genin to find out what the next question was, and because you made such a risk, you made it, and those who couldn't, failed."

_SMASH!_

The window had been smashed, and something which looked like a large ball came through. Said 'ball' turned out to be a woman, and the cloth that had been around her stuck to the wall and became a banner where it said 'Mitarashi Anko', which was probably the woman's name.

"Alright Maggots. My name is Mitarashi Anko and I'll be your assessor for the next test…" She then looked around at everyone in the room and was kind of shicked to see so many left." Ibiki, it seems that you are losing your touch. But no matter, I'll halve the total that you've got in here before I'm done. Now everyone, follow me to training ground 44!" She then jumped out the window from where she came, leaving the genins slightly baffled by what had just happened, but soon decided that they should leave to reach their next destination.


	9. Chuunin part three

All of the genin had reached training grounds 44, which was basically a colossal forest which had a huge gat surrounding it. The teams stood there in awe, until their assessor began to talk.

"Alright maggots, this is where you will all be taking the next part of the exam. This is training grounds 44, or more commonly known as; 'The forest of death'. Each group will receive either a heavens scroll or an earth scroll and you will have five days in which to obtain the one you need from another team, by any means necessary. This area has a ten kilometer radius and in the center is a tower, which you are to reach when you have one of each scrolls in your inventory. But before you can begin, you must sign these forms, which state that I cannot be held responsible for any of your deaths." Anko then crossed her arms and had a very pleased expression on her face as she saw that people were beginning to have doubts whether or not to continue. But there was one individual, wearing a cloak, who seemed not to be affected as they were just staring at the forest. This angered her, so she decided to have a little fun. She reached down to her pouch and grabbed a kunai. She took it up, aimed and threw it at a fast speed, just slow enough for a genin to dodge barely.

But, what she hadn't expected happened. There was a small, short scream, whilst wind came from the sleeve of the cloak, which was strong enough to stop the kunai in the air, making it drop down to the ground.

Anko looked up to see if she could make out any features, but all she saw under the hood was an eye, which was glowing silver. It stopped glowing soon after, and Anko was too caught up to realise that someone was approaching her. She felt a tap on her back and immediately turned around to see that it was one of the grass-nins, holding her kunai with the persons outstretched tongue.

"Here you go."

"Um… Thanks…" Anko then took the slightly wet kunai and returned to where she left off. "Ok, the forms will be given round and when your team has signed them, line up so that you may enter the tent over there to hand them in and receive your teams scroll."

Ten minutes later and everyone was ready, standing outside their designated gates, waiting for the go-ahead and for the gates to open. Many were sweating with anticipation and anxiousness, but they were all to determined to quit.

"See you all in five days… hopefully. Now, BEGIN!" And the gates swung open and all of the teams disappeared into the forest.

Team seven had decided to keep on wearing their special glasses throughout this exam as well because they would probably come in handy whilst they were out. They started with a fast pace which they would be able to keep for a while as they got their bearings and directions of the area.

The first day for the three was uneventful to say the least, as they hadn't come across any of the other teams and they had just basically been running around. So, they set up camp along with traps and took turns in taking watch, Sasuke going first, then Niina and then Sakura.

On day two, they carried on with their search and things were still rather quiet for them.

"You'd think that the other teams were keeping a distance away from us." Sasuke began.

"Yeah, I know what you mean, we haven't seen or heard anything whatsoever from any of the other teams. You would have thought that everyone would try and go for the rookies, but I guess that's not the case here." Sakura added.

"But that doesn't mean we can start slacking, we need to keep our guards up twenty four seven. You okay Niina?"

"… Wha… Oh, yes, I'm fine…"

Sasuke let a small, almost invisible, smile appear. _She didn't stutter… But how I'd wish to see her smile, just once… Okay Sasuke, concentrate on what we're doing…_ The smile disappeared as they carried on.

An hour passed and still nothing, so the three took a break by a river, where they would be able to get something to eat and drink. Niina went to go and search to area whilst the other two stayed and rested.

Minutes passed until there was a high scream coming from far out in the distance. One which both Sakura and Sasuke recognised.

"NIINA!" They both shouted, but as they were both about to head out to her, they were obstructed by the grass-nin who had returned the kunai back to Anko earlier. "Get out of the way, we haven't got time for you!" Sasuke shouted, but all he received was freaky and menacing laugh. "What's so funny?!"

"Well, your friend is being taken care of by my pet. She shouldn't last much longer. But, I'm here for you."

_**Back with Niina…**_

Niina had just been out, scouting the surroundings, but she had suddenly been ambushed by a huge ferocious snake. She tried to get away, but the snake was quick and quickly obstructed her. She really didn't want to fight it, but it gave her no choice. She tried to get it by throwing dozens of kunai and shurikan, but they weren't affecting it at all, so she stopped so that she wouldn't waste anymore.

She was now fighting it with her fist, using taijutsu. Again, this had no affect on the snake, but Niina carried on nonetheless, until she was swallowed by the huge snake.

She was now inside the snake, sliding downs its slimy throat. She was shaking with fear until she realised that she would have to do something to get out of the snake. She put her hands together in the sign of the cross, and shouted three words,

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

_**Back with the others…**_

The grass nin had removed his mask to reveal that he was actually Orochimaru. He was standing there, laughing with his menacing cackle.

Sakura was frozen in place out of fear. She couldn't move an inch, all she could do was stare helplessly as Orochimaru was picking on Sasuke.

"You know, Sasuke-kun, I expected more of a fight from you. But I guess that I've had my fun, so I think it's time to end this." Within a split second, Orochimaru stretched his out and bit Sasuke on the side of his neck, placing the curse mark which he came to give. He quickly retracted his neck and Sasuke fell down to his knees in pain, holding the bite tight with his arm, squinting his eyes tight together, trying to hold himself back from screaming in agony.

All the whiles, Sakura felt more and more hopeless as she couldn't do a thing.

Suddenly, Orochimaru was kicked hard into the side of a large tree by someone. He looked up to see that it was a cloaked figure. A smile spread across his face.

"Well, well, it seems that I'll be able to have a bit more fun here after all…" He got up and stood in a fighting stance.

Niina looked over to where Sasuke was and saw the pain which he was in. She turned back to her opponent. "What did you do to him?!"

"I simply gave him a small gift."

Niina couldn't hold back her anger as she threw back her cloak, revealing herself. Her visible eye began to glow the colour yellow as she ran towards Orochimaru at a speed which was near impossible to follow. She threw punches, jabs and kicks at Orochimaru, most of them hitting him full on, along with bolts and zaps of lightning coming from her finger tips to increase th attack.

Orochimaru just stared in disbelief at what was happening, and then he saw that the eye turned from yellow to brown. She threw a quick punch at him which sent him flying threw the tree behind him at a strength near that of Tsunade.

But Niina wasn't done yet. She couldn't stop. Her eye then changed from its primary stage to the secondary stage. It was now a blinding white with a star shaped pupil which was spinning around.

Orochimaru saw the change. _I-it can't be… the shiroyuri has been dead for years… but… she has it somehow… I must get it, whatever the cost, even if it is the Uchiha…_

But he didn't have time to think anymore as Niina began to use her bloodline. She wasn't standing on the branch anymore, but standing on a great tornado which began at her feet and reached the ground far below. Bolts of lightning were flying from the palms of her hands as he star shaped pupils began spinning faster. Her hair was flaring around her face, revealing her right eye, which was the same as the left. She took her right arm back and thrust it forward, sending more lightning straight at Orochimaru. They struck him with full force sending him flying through the forest, out of sight.

The tornado and lightning then disappeared as Niina fainted. Sakura finally got a hold of herself as she grabbed a kunai and through it towards Niina, catching the back of her shirt so that she hung from the tree, kunai holding her in place.


	10. Chuunin part four

Sakura was now the only one awake, as both Sasuke and Niina were either asleep or unconscious, she couldn't tell. She had managed to find shelter and she had placed numerous traps around, should anyone sneak up on them, as she knew that she wouldn't be able to fend off anyone by herself.

Two days had passed and neither if her teammates seemed to be getting better and something strange was happening to Sasuke, as purple steam was rising from where Sasuke was, and she couldn't figure out what Niina; how she had been able to fight like she did. She had many questions to ask, but now wasn't the time, besides, she hadn't slept in a couple days, and she needed to stay awake and alert.

She was also growing hungry and there food was running low, as well as the water, but she didn't want to leave, so she ignored the growls sent from her stomach.

She changed the wet cloth on Niina and Sasuke's forehead, she had lost track of how many times she had done so, but carried on nonetheless.

Sakura suddenly caught sight of something moving a couple meters away, she squinted her eyed to see what it was, but found out that it was only a squirrel, she threw a shurikan at it, succeeding in scarring it away, so that it wouldn't set off any of her traps.

Little did she know that she was being watched by a trio of sound genin who had been sent specifically to find them. There was a female and two males, all three of them were crouching behind a bush, studying the surroundings and watching in amusement, as the pink haired kunoichi became more and more tired as time went by.

They had all watched Sakura when she scared off the squirrel and thought it strange seeing as she was most probably hungry, so they came to one conclusion; there were traps set.

They waited a while longer until they decided to show themselves. The stood up and emerged from their hiding place behind the bush. Sakura immediately saw them and got on her guard, grabbing a kunai from her pouch.

"W-what do you want?!" She demanded.

Dosu, the leader of the group, smirked, before replying, "If you give us the girl, then we will leave you and the other in peace." Zaku and Kin then crossed their arms, as if to confirm that they wouldn't mind a little struggle.

"No way… I… can't do that… I WON'T do that!"

"Well… I guess that means that we'll have to take her by force… Zaku?" Dosu turned to look at said person, who then replied,

"Don't mind if I do…" He smiled before he began to run towards Sakura at a high speed. But before he could reach her, he was blocked by a boy clad in green spandex.

"Rock Lee… What are you doing here?"

Said person looked back, smiling, at Sakura. "I said that I would protect you… so that is what I'm doing…" He then gave her the nice guy pose, before returning back to his taijutsu stance.

"Is this freak your boyfriend?" Zaku asked mockingly.

"NO!"

Rock Lee's fell to the ground with a defeated expression present on his face, but quickly got up again.

"I shall protect you Sakura, even if it costs me my life!"

"Rock Lee… You don't have to do this."

"Aw… This is so touching, I'm almost gonna cry… NOT! Now, can we get back to our little fight or what?"

Immediately, in a blink of an eye, Lee was off, heading straight towards Zaku. He got four punches and a kick through before he back-flipped a couple meters, holding up his right hand in front of him when he landed. He waved his finger to-and-fro a couple of times, indicating that Zaku should approach him, which he did.

Lee began to undo the bandaging which he had round his hands and wrists as Zaku neared. As soon as Zaku was close enough, Rock Lee disappeared, only to reappear beneath Zaku, kicking him up in the air. He soon followed after, reappearing again beneath Zaku, wrapping his bandages around the whole of Zaku's body, preventing him from escaping Lee's move.

Once done with the wrapping, Lee grabbed Zaku and started spinning, heading towards the ground.

Dosu had been watching the whole thing and he knew that if he didn't do anything, then Zaku would most definitely be done for, so he used his gauntlet, and let sound waves travel through the ground, which would soften Zaku's landing, greatly decreasing the effect of Lee's combo.

Zaku landed, his head deep in the ground, whilst Lee had jumped off just before the crash. He stumbled a bit before he got his balance, but he was tired and exhausted, as he knew he would be after doing the lotus. But what he saw next shocked him; Zaku was getting up off the ground, hardly injured, just a bit shaken.

"H-how are you able… to get up… after my… attack?" Lee asked, the gaps in his speech made it clear that he couldn't carry on.

Dosu smiled, "I cushioned his fall…" Just then, Lee's knees buckled underneath him as he fell to the ground.

"Lee!" Sakura shouted. She felt so useless, she didn't do anything helpful when they were fighting against Orochimaru, and now, Rock Lee had fought to protect her, even when he was clearly out matched and they weren't even on the same team, let alone the same age group. But before she could get another thought to come into her head, she felt someone grab her hair from behind her. A few tears escaped from her eyes.

She heard a female speak. "Aw… Am I pulling a little bit too tight for the princess… there's no point in getting a kunai…" She said as she saw Sakura grab one. "… it won't help you."

But Sakura knew it would. She brought it up to the back of her head. She cut off her hair from just beneath the hands of Kin, releasing her from her grip.

"I… I won't be a nuisance anymore… From now on… I'll do my part… for my team!" She then made her way towards Zaku, as he had already been in battle, so he had already been weakened a bit. She decided that she had better chances of defeating him rather then any of the others, so that was what she aimed to do.

She ran straight towards him. He smirked and three a couple kunai straight at her, gut there was a _poof_ and there was a log in her place, with several kunai embedded in it. _A substitution… not bad, but she'll have to do much better if she wants to defeat me, or at least last a little longer… _he then heard movement behind him, where hesaw Sakura running towards him, again, he threw a couple kunai at her and again she used a substitution jutsu. He knew that this would probable go on for a while, but carried on for the sake of it, to make her think that she was winning.

There was another one coming from his right, and there was another _poof_. Then he saw one coming from above and threw a couple kunai carelessly at her, looking around to see where the next one would be coming from, but he saw none. Then, he felt something wet drip down on his arm; he looked to see what it was and found that it was blood. He looked up and saw that she hadn't used a substitution jutsu, but that she had actually taken the blow and was on top of him in the blink of an eye, stabbing his right arm with a kunai, biting it hard at the same time. Blood was pouring fast from the wounds and Zaku gritted his teeth in pain. He used his free hand and started to bash her head hard, but everytime he did that, she just bit and pushed harder.

Finally, after one last bash to the head, Sakura let go and fell to the ground, coughing up blood.

"You know… You're a real pain in the neck. So I think it would be best to… dispose of you…" But before he could get any further, he felt the presence of something… something evil and powerful. He looked to where it felt strongest and saw that purple chakra was swirling around the Uchiha. Said person had now risen and black flame-like markings appeared on his skin and he had a menacing looked in his eyes, his sharingan activated.

"Sakura…" Said person looked up and stared at the person whom she loved, look so evil. "… Who did this to you?"

She didn't reply due to the shock she was in, so Sasuke looked around and saw that Zaku was smirking, and that he had a wounded arm. Immediately he knew that it was him who had harmed Sakura. He disappeared and reappeared so fast that you wouldn't believe it. He was behind Zaku, foot on his back whilst he was pulling his arms back, tighter with each passing second. Zaku cried out in pain as his arms were slowly being broken and stretched.

Meanwhile, Niina had felt the evil presence which disturbed, causing her to wake up. She looked around frantically until she set her eyes on Sasuke, but he wasn't the Sasuke that she remembered, he was corrupt, tainted. She leapt to her feat and dashed over to him, embracing him in a tight hug from behind, sobbing tears, soaking the back of shirt, darkening the red of the Uchiha crest.

"Sasuke… P-please stop… Y-you're not yourself…" She pleaded in between sobs.

Sasuke turned around to face her, glaring at her with his eyes for a split second until there was a blinding white flash when Niina looked back into his eyes. The light engulfed the two.

When it disappeared after a few seconds, Niina was down on the ground, sitting on her shins whilst Sasuke lay down, with his head on her lap, the black markings completely gone. Sasuke's expression was that of his usual, emotionless, but his eyelids drooped a bit down, whereas Niina's eyes were red and puffy and her cheeks tear stained.

The three sound nin were still there, they had watched the whole thing, with no idea as to what had just happened. Dosu saw the power of the Uchiha, and if Orochimaru had wanted the girl, then she must have been powerful too, so he came to the conclusion of them not being a match for the three Konoha nins. He decided that they had better get out of this place, away from them.

He picked up Zaku, putting Zaku's arm over his shoulder. He then reached into his pocket and pulled something.

"Here's our scroll. We'll give it to you if you let us leave." There was a moment of silence before Sakura realised what had just been said, nodding half mindedly. Dosu threw the scroll over to her before turning around, but stopped, with his back to them. "Sasuke… If we meet again, I will not back down." And the three sound nin were gone.


	11. Prelims Part One

**Yeah, sorry about not updating this, and I wasn't really supposed to post anymore on here for a while, as I said in my profile, read it if you wanna know, but I managed to get this chapter out, so I hope that it wasn't too bad. If it was then feel free to criticise or whatever you want. I also know that it has been ten days since I last updated this fic so sorry about that too...**

**Anyway, I had something else to say but I forgot, so I'll just skip right up to the disclaimer...**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto (sniff, sniff...)**

* * *

Team seven had made it to the tower in the center of the forest at the end of the fourth day, which meant that they would have a day to rest before the second exam would be officially over.

All three of them had been completely silent for the journey to the tower, as none of them knew exactly what to say or how to say it. They just wanted to finish the second test.

They made it there easily as they didn't encounter any other teams or 'beasts' of the forest.

They entered the doors and they were in a large room where, on the opposite wall, there was a large poster with writing on, which they tried to decipher but found that they couldn't. Nothing happened, so they turned to their scrolls. Sakura opened the heaven scroll whilst Sasuke opened the earth scroll, both of them throwing them quickly to the ground when smoke started to rise from them. When they reached the floor, there was a _poof_. When the smoke disappeared, Iruka was standing where the scrolls had previously been.

"Congratulations!" He beamed at them.

"A summoning scroll… But what would have happened if we were to have opened the scrolls before we got here?" Sakura asked.

"Good question. Well, we were ordered to put a genjutsu on anyone who opened the scroll if they didn't have both scrolls and if they weren't here in the tower. They would then wake up when the test was over and they would have failed."

Iruka then looked at the three genins when he set his eyes on Niina, who had lost her cloak when she fought Orochimaru. He was confused, he knew that he had placed Naruto on this team. Where was the high spirited happy-go-lucky Naruto? But he saw that the girl standing there looked about ready to burst into tears. He had never seen anyone looked so saddened.

"Tomorrow, when the exam is over, everyone who passed will meet in the sparring hall, where you will be told of what will happen next. So, since you got here early, you'll be allowed to rest until then, alright? Good." The three genin made their way towards the door, but Niina was stopped by Iruka right before she reached to door. "You two go on ahead, I just need a word with her." The two genins nodded and began walking again, but Sasuke turned his head slightly back to catch a last glance at Niina.

Iruka lead Niina up to the Hokage, who had a small office near the top of the tower. He knocked on the door and entered when given permission.

"Iruka… I had a feeling that I would be seeing you here…"

"With all respect Hokage- sama, but where is Naruto!"

There was a pained look on the Hokage's face as he knew just how fond Iruka was of Naruto. He would feel betrayed when he found out but he had to find out sooner or later, sooner being the better choice.

"Iruka…" Sarutobi let out a long sigh, getting Iruka to listen intently. He then began to explain the whole story to him, breaking in between important parts to let them settle with Iruka, who would every now and then glance over at Niina, who was staring out of the window with a distant expression on her face.

"I'm sorry about this Iruka, I knew how you felt about… Naruto, but it was needed to have it like this for Niina."

"Yes, of course… I-I understand." Iruka then stood up and left without another word.

Sarutobi looked over to where Niina was sitting and noticed that something was wrong, so he walked over to her and crouched down by her side.

"Is everything alright Niina?… You look… troubled."

She nodded slowly, but then began to shake her head violently from side to side as tears began to stream from her eyes. She threw herself forwards to hug Sarutobi, who patted her gently on the back for comfort.

"I… I lost control… I couldn't stop, i-it just happened… I-I just got s-so angry a-and it just happened…" Her tears were soaking the Third's shoulder, but he didn't mind.

"What happened there in the forest?... You know you can tell me…"

"… We were attacked by someone… But h-he was much too strong to be a genin, even a jounin… H-he did something to Sasuke… A-and I j-just lost it."

"This man, what did he look like? Was there anything distinctive about him?"

"He was extremely pale, long black hair and he reminded me of a snake." Niina replied after her sobs had ended.

Immediately Sarutobi knew who it was. _…Orochimaru… So now you have decided to act…_ He raised a hand to Niina's face and wiped away a couple of her tears. "Now, why don't you go and join your teammates, and I'll take care of the rest." Niina nodded and left.

As soon as she was gone, he summoned Anko. When she came, he briefed her on what Niina had told him. "I think it would be wise if you and a few others of your choice were to scout the forest for anything related to him."

"Yes Hokage-sama." And she was off, leaving the Hokage to think things through and prepare for the following day.

_**Over to team seven…**_

The three of them had each received a room to stay in for the night. They had found out that Team Gai had already made it through, as well as the sound team and the sand siblings. So they were the fourth team to pass, the first of the rookie nine, maybe the only one, but they later heard that team eight had also made it through.

They woke up the next day, got dressed and made it to the sparring hall. When they were there, they saw that team ten was also there, along with Kabuto's team. Seven teams had made it through to the next round, all of which were standing in lines with their teammates, and their sensei standing at the back of their team.

The Hokage, along with several other jounin were standing up on the platform which was in front of everyone. He was congratulating everyone on getting so far, but when he was about to explain the next part of the exam, he was interrupted by another jounin who said that his name was Hayate.

"Too many people have made it through to the next round, so preliminaries will be taken. But before we begin, is there anyone here who doesn't think that they'll be able to fight now or who wishes to leave?" Everyone was looking around, until finally one hand was raised, it was the hand of Kabuto. After he left, no other hands were raised.

"Alright then, it seems that we can begin. Two names will appear on the screen behind me at random. Those two will fight first and after they're finished, the next two names will be chosen. As for the rules, anything goes. However, I can stop the fight if I think that the winner is obvious. Also, you may forfeit anytime during the fight." He then turned to the screen as it began to flick through names at a high speed. It began to slow down when it stopped on two names; Uchiha Sasuke and Yoroi. Everyone else made their way up to the watching platforms, standing in their teams with their senseis.

The fight began and went on for a couple of minutes with Sasuke winning at the end, but he was exhausted and he was quickly taken away by Kakashi, and Yoroi was taken away by the medics.

The next fight was between Shino and Dosu, the sound genin. The two made it down to the floor to begin their spar. Hayate began the match.

At first, no-one moved, but then Dosu decided to act first by throwing a couple of shuriken at Shino, which he managed to evade, but Dosu had hoped that he would do that, as he ran straight towards him to start off in a taijutsu fight. At first, Shino eluded every one his kicks and jabs, but then Dosu managed to get a punch through, however, instead of forcing Shino back and down, his hand got stuck inside of him, and he could feel movement inside there.

He looked down in horror as bugs were coming out and made their way up his arm. He wasn't able to take his hand out as it was stuck, so more bugs made their way up his arm, reaching his body and they began to cover him entirely. He could feel himself growing weaker and weaker like he was being drained. His knees buckled underneath him and he fell down to the ground. His eyelids began to grow heavy as they made their way down until he couldn't hold them up anymore. They closed and he fell completely down to the ground, hitting his head at the same time.

"Winner… Aburame Shino!" The screen stopped again, the next to fight were Tsurugi Misumi and Kankorou.

Kankorou won and Misumi was rushed to the hospital by a group of medics after being squeezed to the point where he suffered major bone damage by Kankorou's puppet. The next two names appeared and Shikamaru and Kin went down the stairs and quickly began their spar, Shikamaru winning at the end.

The next fight was between Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura, two former best friends who lost their friendship when they both fell for the same guy, namely Sasuke. They walked down to the ground without looking at each other in the eye until they were both in their stances. Nothing happened after the battle had begun, until Sakura started the attacking frenzy off. The battle between the two was more of less even and that's exactly how it ended; as a draw.

When the screen stopped; Kiba let out a howl at being the next up to fight, completely forgetting to read his opponents name out of excitement as he headed down towards the center of the hall.

When Niina saw whose other name was on the screen, her heart missed a beat as it were her own. She was debating whether or not if she would continue, until she felt someone's hand on her shoulder. She looked up to find that the hand belonged to Sakura, who had just woken up from her last battle.

Sakura could see the nervousness in Niina's eyes, and she pitied her, as she always seemed to be like this. Sakura smiled a small but reassuring smile to Niina, who blinked a couple of times in response.

"You go down there and show Kiba what you're made of, alright?" It wasn't as much of a question as it should have been. However, it had the desired effect as Niina slowly made her way down to the center of the hall, facing Kiba, but not quite looking at him in the eye.

She felt more pressure then she should have as all eyes were on her now, and it made it worse that she didn't have her cloak to hide in. She raised her right hand and held her left elbow, showing her nervousness to everyone around.

Meanwhile, Kiba had been jumping up and down from excitement until his opponent had come down. He saw how she reacted and immediately thought her weak, though he also pitied her, though only a tiny bit.

"If you give up, then you'll spare yourself the pain and humiliation of being finished with one move." Kiba said, receiving a bark from Akamaru as backup.

As tempting as it was to give up, she couldn't betray her team by just doing that, so she made herself stay where she was, though she was shaking ever so slightly, which hadn't gone unnoticed by Kiba, who smirked.

"Alright then… but don't come crying to me when this is over."

Hayate coughed, receiving everyone's attention. "Begin!"

Immediately, Kiba ran straight towards Niina, whilst she wasn't focused, ready to throw a punch that would be sure to knock her out. But, just when he was just over a meter away from her, he saw her left eye glow yellow, but he had too much momentum to stop, so he pursued with his attack.

Niina reacted to the attack like it was something she had been trained to do everyday of her life. She wasn't even aware of her doing so, as it was in fact a reflex action.

As Kiba's fist neared, Niina bent backwards, hands firmly placed on the ground behind her as she was going to flip backwards, however, that wasn't all, as she had also grabbed Kiba's fist with her feet, flinging him with little effort towards the wall behind her, all of this being done within a quarter of a second.

The was a deafening noise as Kiba made contact with the wall. When all of the smoke and dust had cleared through the air, everyone saw that there was a crater in said wall and that Kiba was right in the middle, knocked out.

Once Niina saw this she immediately ran over to him, as she didn't mean to do any of what she had just done, but rather acted out of instinct.

"I-I'm sorry… I d-didn't mean to…" She had her hands covering her mouth.

Medic nins appeared and placed Kiba onto a stretcher. "I-is he going to b-be alright?" Niina was worried that she had hurt him. However, she got no answer as the medics, along with Kiba, were soon out of the doors.

Niina made her way up to the platform, feeling worse then she had when she made her way down. Sakura saw this and immediately ran over to her teammate.

"That was amazing Niina…" Sakura began to praise, stopping herself when she looked at Niina's eyes. "Don't worry… you did nothing wrong… he just got a hit in the head which, if you ask me, he deserved for being so arrogant and obnoxious." Niina looked up to meet Sakura's gaze.

"Thanks… I needed th-that…" And with that, the two walked back to the spot where they had been before. Seconds later, Kakashi _poofed_ in.

"Kakashi-sensei, where's Sasuke-kun? Is he alright?" Sakura asked her teacher like it was the most important thing in the world, well, it was for Sakura.

"He's fine, there's no need to worry about him… though I would like to know what actually happened in the forest, but you can explain that to me later." Kakashi finished this with his infamous eye smile, before he remembered something. "Have either of you fought yet?"

Sakura was the one to answer. "I did two matches ago…"

"The outcome being…" Kakashi pushed it.

"It was a draw, between Ino and I."

"And what about Na-… I mean Niina?"

"You just missed her spar, well pretty much everyone did as it was quickly over. She won quickly against Kiba." During the short explanation, Niina had move a few inches away from her team, feeling slightly uncomfortable with all of the attention, her eyes focused down on the railing in front of her.

Kakashi had noticed and raised an eyebrow subconsciously. "What happened?" Kakashi was intrigued and wanted to know.

"Well, Kiba ran towards Niina really fast and then her eye began to glow yellow. In less then a second, she kinda flipped backwards and threw Kiba towards the wall; see where that big crater is." She pointed to the hole on the wall, Kakashi nodded in seeing it. "But she is kinda upset about it… I think that what she did was just a reflex or something, I'm not sure though…" Kakashi just nodded

Again, the screen went buzzing, ending with Hyuuga Neji and Hyuuga Hinata – cousins.

The end was inevitable, Neji won the battle, but Hinata, she had become stronger, maybe not physically, but mentally, she had been able to stand up to the person whom she wanted respect from. But then she suddenly fainted and fell to the cold hard floor. More medics appeared and took her away to the hospital. Neji however, watched Hinata being carried away, with a smirk on his face, almost as if he was proud of what he had done.

* * *

**Yeah, I'm ending it there. This chapter was much longer then the other chapters, though I know that it is still pretty short compared to some of my other fics, but I did say that this fic would be made of short chapters and well, this is what you get, so yeah... **

**Anyway, sorry for just blabbering on like this and you're probably thinking that I don't have anything better to do, so I'll just stop writing know...**

**Until Next Time..,**

**(Yep, same ol' ending)**


	12. Prelims Part Two

**Hi everyone. I'm so so so sorry that I haven't updated this fic for over a month, I guess that time just flew by and I kind of forgot or something. I know it isn't an excuse, but I'd rather tell the truth then tell a lie, so there it was.**

**I hope that you like this chapter, and I'll try and update some more, we'll just have to wait and see.**

**Also, I know that the fourth Hokage's name isn't Kazama Arashi, but Namikaze Minato, but I like Arashi and that was what I started with and I'll end it with it as well.**

* * *

After Hinata had been placed on a stretcher, the medics had taken her out of the sparring hall and to the hospital.

The names on the board began to shuffle again until they landed on the next two opponents. Nara Shikamaru and Tsuchi Kin. Said people made their way down, Shikamaru taking his time whilst getting down and Kin standing there looking annoyed.

"You don't honestly expect me to spar against a guy like him who can't even be bothered to get down without making it look like an effort. Honestly, it's just pointless if you ask me." Kin complained.

Shikamaru just sighed. _How troublesome, but… it'll get even worse if I don't try because then I'll have Ino on my back… troublesome women…_ He thought to himself.

The two got ready and began. At first, it looked like Kin would get an easy win, but then suddenly at then end, it turned out that Shikamaru had had the whole thing planned out from the beginning, winning by knocking her out, as he head had been slammed into the unseen wall behind her.

Shikamaru went back up the stairs in the same manner as he had come down.

The board shuffled again and stopped at Sabaku no Temari and Tenten. The two tough kunoichi quickly came down to the ground and began, with Temari winning at the end, and Tenten being taken away by the medics.

Sabaku no Gaara and Rock Lee were next. Their battle was by far one of the most amazing battles, as the strength of each shinobi was increased until it had everyone watching intently, even Shikamaru looked like her was into it. But sadly, Rock Lee lost after the great fight and was taken away by the medics like many other of the genins.

Then there were only two left, the board not bothering to show their names as it was obvious. The two were Akimichi Chouji and Abumi Zaku. The two respective ninja made their way down, Chouji's hands free of their usual possession of a bag of crisps. At first he had been nervous, but after his sensei, Asuma, had said that there would be all-you-can-eat barbeque, how could he refuse?

"Contestants ready?... Begin."

The two opponents just stood there, Chouji staring at Zaku curiously and Zaku had a smirk plastered on his face, it grew wider as he began to speak. "So… I'm supposed to face this guy. Com on, I mean he doesn't look like much… shinobi standards anyway."

Chouji caught onto what he was hinting and narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean by that?"

"Hn… You a bit big to be a shinobi aren't you? You probably tire down easily and you're probably also really slow. It's a wonder how you came this far, being fat and all. You look like a beach ball…"

"What did you say?!"

"I said that it's not muscle that you got hiding behind that thick layer of skin!"

_**Up in the stands…**_

The other members of team ten all had one thing going through their mind. _That Zaku guy's in BIG trouble now… No-one ever gets away with calling Chouji fat…_

_**Down to the spar…**_

Zaku was finding it hard to keep his laughter at bay, though he still managed to somehow. The subject of this laughter was one Chouji, as his expression was one of a very pissed off person, and he didn't think it suited the guy.

"I am NOT fat!" Chouji shouted as he began to make some handseals and calling out '_Baika no Jutsu_' when he was done. His body increased in size until it became an almost perfect sphere. It began to spin, gaining speed at the same time, though it was still in one place.

Zaku, however, wasn't expecting this but smirked to himself as he figured that he could just use his wind pipes in his hands to end the spar. He quickly did a couple handseals before calling out 'Zankūha'. Supersonic blasts escaped through the tubes in his palms and were heading straight for Chouji at an incredibly high speed, which Chouji wasn't able to dodge. However, he didn't actually need to dodge as his body was spinning to fats for the blast to have any affect on him, and therefore rendering Zaku's attacks useless.

When Zaku noticed that his attacks didn't work, he began to worry. But, to make things worse for him, Chouji began to move and was now heading straight for him.

He threw himself to the side and narrowly dodge, but that would probably be the last time as with each passing second, Chouji would gain speed.

Chouji hit and rebounded off of the wall, leaving a large dent and headed straight towards Zaku again, who just about managed to jump to the side, and stumbling a bit as well.

But he didn't have time to dodge again as Chouji had quickly changed his direction and now made collision with the sound-nin.

This resulted in Zaku getting hit and thrown to the other side of the hall, landing flat on the wall, and falling down limp to the ground, unconscious.

Chouji, when he noticed his opponent was out, slowed down, stopped and returned to his normal size. He was standing, though he couldn't keep his balance and kept on leaning from side to side, his eyes spinning as he was very dizzy. He was also extremely exhausted as being in that form took a lot of energy and chakra out of him.

"Winner… Akimichi Chouji!" Hayate declared, ending with a short fit of coughs. Medics came and took Zaku away on a stretcher. A couple more came and took Chouji away, though he wasn't injured, he still needed to recover.

Up in the stands, Ino was cheering out loud for her teammate, though on the inside, she was a bit sad as she was the only one of the three not to have made it through to the next round, but then she realised that the same could be said for Sakura, both of her teammates had made it through. Sasuke and… and…. Now that she thought about it, she had no idea who her female teammate was, though Ino had gathered that she wasn't that bad a kunoichi as she had easily knocked Kiba out, but she also lacked a lot of confidence, she might even be worse the Hinata… Ino hadn't thought that possible until just now…

Back down on the stage in front of the screen, the Hokage had everyone who made through to the next round standing in front of him, apart from the ones who were with the medics. He was telling them how they had a month to prepare for the final exam and he had them all draw numbers from a bowl to see who would face who.

The opponents would be:

1st match: Hyuuga Neji vs. Junshin Kazama Niina

2nd match: Sabaku no Gaara vs. Akimichi Chouji

3rd match: Aburame Shino vs. Sabaku no Kankorou

4th match: Nara Shikamaru vs. Sabaku no Temari

5th match: Uchiha Sasuke vs. winner of 4th match.

Everyone was then dismissed and the Hokage left. All of the jounin senseis also left with their genin groups in tow.

* * *

**Okay, I'll end it here and I'll try my best to update soon again, also, I'll try and update 'Konoha's Scarlet Claw' soon as well, it's just that I've been ill for the last week and I could only just write this.**

**Until Next Time…**


	13. Found You

**Okay, I'm just gonna try and write some more chapters for this fic, as I just got into it again and therefore, there might be a small break from updating 'Konoha's Scarlet Claw'. I hope none of you mind.**

* * *

Niina was currently walking around the village of Konoha, in search of someone, but it wasn't just any person, no, she was looking for one of the Legendary Sannin, or to be more specific, Jiraiya, the toad hermit.

She had been informed by the Hokage that he was now back in the village, and therefore she set out to find him.

She had been looking around for a while now before she realised that he would probably be somewhere where he could gather his 'research', which meant that he was probably at an onsen, or somewhere similar to one.

She went to the main one, but she didn't catch sight of him there, so she went to next one.

She was just about to leave, when she heard a very unmanly giggle coming from the fence. She looked over to where she though she heard in come from and sure enough, it was none other then the very white-haired-man whom she had been in search for.

She saw that he had a notebook and pencil in hand, blush on either cheeks, a perverted smile adorning his face and one eye closed whilst the other was looking through a small hole in the fence, where he could see the women who were currently visiting the onsen.

That was typical of him, she had learnt to live with it, and she knew that he wouldn't peep on her, he had solemnly promised so, with a serious face.

"Oji-san… (uncle)" She called out in an almost whisper, though it was loud enough for the sannin to her. He turned away from his current activity only to have his eyes land on a small person hidden beneath an overly large black cloak.

However, he knew who was hiding under there, as there was only one person who ever called him oji-san, and that person was his godchild.

The perverted smile quickly transformed into one of deep sincerity. He pocketed his pencil and notebook as he stood up and slowly walked over to her. Once he had reached her, he bent down to her eye level.

"Hey Niina, listen… I'm sorry that I wasn't there in time… I kind of… got held up…"

"I-it's ok, ojii-san (grandfather) explained it all to me…"

"Do you want me to go and do the seal now?"

"N-no, I like being b-back to normal again… it's nice, not having to hide behind my m-mask anymore…"

Jiraiya's smile widened slightly at hearing this. He was glad that she was beginning to come out of her thick shell.

"Is there anything else which I can do for, you know, to make it up to you?"

"No… no, there is nothing which n-need making up for… but, I was wandering, i-if you could help me get some more c-confidence?" She said as she twiddled her fingers in a Hinata style.

"Sure thing." Jiraiya the stood up, picking Niina up and placing her small body on top of his shoulder, where she sat comfortably.

He then started walking off, heading towards the training grounds where they would always go when they needed to. The training grounds which they used was different from the normal one, as Niina wanted to be kept hidden. It was surrounded by wild and overgrown plants, perfect for hiding the two, whilst there was a large open space in the middle. The was a pond and there were training dummies and stumps, along with a cave.

When they had reached the training grounds, Jiraiya placed Niina back down on the ground, turning around so that he was facing her. "So, you want me to help with your confidence, huh?" Niina nodded.

"Well, for starters, you need to lose the cloak, to be honest, it doesn't do you any wonders. You look good when you're out in the open so why should you hide it from the world?"

"But-…"

"No, the cloak must go!" He said sternly, yet it was still sincere.

"Of course." She then slowly slid the hood down to her shoulders, revealing her beautifully tanned face with her sun-kissed hair. She undid the inner buttons of the cloak and gradually, it was off, lying down on the grassy ground.

"Now, that wasn't so hard now was it?"

She shook her head. "But it's because you're the only one around."

"Aw well, we'll just have to have you go around the town like this then, now won't we?"

"Y-you mean without my cloak?"

"Yes… though I don't quite understand why you wear what you wear if you're so afraid to show yourself… I mean it does suit you and all, it's just a little puzzling."

"This was my mum's."

Jiraiya smiled sadly at his goddaughter. "What if you wore a short coat or something that is more your size then this… this thing." Jiraiya said as he pushed the cloak with his foot.

Niina simply nodded.

The two then set off to fins a shinobi wear shop.

When they had reached an area where there were more people, Niina was tempted to just turn and run away, however, Jiraiya had a firm hand placed on her shoulder so that she couldn't. He held her close for reassurance as they headed towards their destination.

Once there, they went inside and began their search for a small coat or something of the sort.

After half an hour, they found one which they both agreed on.

It was a tight sleeveless hoodie made of a thin and light material which was the same colour blue as her skirt and shinobi sandals, which had a large pocket in the front.

When Niina was about to pay, Jiraiya objected to that and paid for it himself, saying that it was a present. She thanked him and the two of them left.

Jiraiya had asked Niina why Kakashi wasn't teaching her at the moment and she had explained that both her and Sasuke had a week to prepare for the last test of the chuunin exams. Though Kakashi had offered to help, she had refused and said that she hadn't needed any training and that she would find someone to help her with her confidence, which Jiraiya was now doing, which she then thanked him for again.

Niina had told Kakashi that he should train Sasuke and look after him because she was afraid of what Orochimaru might do during the month. Kakashi had eventually agreed, though he wasn't happy about leaving Niina out. Jiraiya excepted this.

_**With Kakashi and Sasuke…**_

The two of them had just finished their training for the day, though Kakashi had noticed that Sasuke was somewhat distracted during their training. He had asked why but Sasuke hadn't answered, simply grunting in response.

The only thing he had said all day was a question. He had asked why he wasn't helping Niina and he had told him what Niina had just told Jiraiya earlier that day. Sasuke excepted the answer, but was still distracted nonetheless.

After that question, Kakashi had a vague idea as to why he was distracted, as it wasn't like him to be like this. He had always been a hard working student, his mind always set on completing his task, but today was not the case.

Before Sasuke was dismissed, Kakashi called him over.

"What's bothering you Sasuke?"

Sasuke looked slightly startled by the question, but quickly regained his posture. "Nothing Kakashi-sensei." He replied in his usual manner.

Kakashi merely raised an eyebrow. "You can't fool me that easily Sasuke, now you might as well just come out and tell me what exactly is on your mind."

Sasuke looked away from his sensei, his fists clenched together. He then made eye contact again with his sensei. He sat down gruffly and crossed his arms. "Kakashi-sensei…" He then looked away again.

"Yes?…"

"I… I don't know, but… but I just don't…" Sasuke then took a deep breath. "For some reason, I just haven't been able to… I haven't been able to stop thinking about…"

"… Niina…" Kakashi answered for him. Sasuke's head swiveled round so that the two, again, had eye contact.

"Hn…"

Kakashi smiled under his mask, he was getting somewhere.

"I think I know why, Sasuke…"

"…Why, Kakashi-sensei… why is it that can't stop thinking about her… I… I can't stop wanting to see her smile…"

"I think that you have growing feelings for her Sasuke. And these feelings are what makes your most precious person stand above the rest."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Look underneath the underneath." And with that, he disappeared in a _poof_.

* * *

**Okay, that was chapter… er, thirteen was it? Yeah, anyway… Sorry if this sounded like a filler, but I wanted this out and well, here it was…**

**Until Next Time…**


	14. Troubled Thoughts

Sasuke was sitting at the end of the pier by the lake; the place where his father had often taken him when he was younger, before Itachi had done what he had done to them. His sandals were off and he had one foot skimming over the water, his toes already wet, whilst the other leg was bent and on the wooden beam just beneath the platform.

He always came here when he had something to think about… or when he just wanted to be alone and be rid of everyone and everything else.

Today's visit was for thinking, which he was desperate for since he had a memory which kept on reappearing in his mind.

"_I think that you have growing feelings for her Sasuke. And these feelings are what makes your most precious person stand above the rest."_

Those were the exact words which Kakashi had said to him the last time the two had spoken, apart from the tips and such from his training.

He had been thinking long and hard to try and figure out what his perverted sensei had meant when he said that. When he had asked, his sensei had simply told him to:

"_Look underneath the underneath."_

He had tried that but still, there was no result.

"…_these feelings are what makes your most precious person stand above the rest…"_

Instead of trying to look underneath the underneath, he then tried to envision it as how Kakashi had described it.

He closed his eyes and blocked out all sounds and movements around him, focusing on his objective.

He imagined a crowd, full of everyone he knew and many other citisens of Konoha which he remembered. He imagined all of them standing in a clearing, side by side and in front of another, with no space in between them. He then imagined Niina in the center of the crowd, as soon as he did this, everyone else around her became blurry and unfocused, like they didn't matter to him, even his sensei and other people who should mean something to him became a fuzzy blur. Everyone just blended together, leaving Niina standing in the middle, standing out from the rest.

_Niina…_

Suddenly, a light began to outline around her as she seemed to float upwards and her gaze drifted over to him until their eyes met, and they held their gaze.

Sasuke opened his eyes now. He now understood what Kakashi had said before.

Niina was precious to him, even more then anyone else. It was like they didn't matter to him if Niina was there.

She really did stand out compared to the others.

A small smile graced his lips. It was a smile which hadn't made an appearance in a very long time; a true smile. He had finally realised why and what he felt for Niina.

He stood up and strapped his sandals back on as he began to go in search for hiss precious person.

He had been running around the village in search of her for over an hour and still he had no luck and the smile was gone from his face.

It wasn't supposed to be this hard to find someone in an oversized black cloak. He had quit running and was now absently walking through the streets with his hands in his pockets, looking at the ground in front of him, kicking a small stone with his foot, when he bumped into someone, who squeaked in response.

He looked up and saw someone familiar, though he couldn't quite match the person up with a name yet.

"S-sasuke-kun…"

Sasuke's eye widened slightly when he heard the voice; a voice which he had now found that he liked to hear; it was sweet and innocent, just like the bearer of the voice.

His heart missed a beat. He had been planning on what to say when his voice got slightly caught in his throat. "Hey Niina-chan…" He held his breath when he added the suffix. _Calm down Sasuke, Uchiha's aren't meant to be nervous… Just ask her and get it over with…_ Then another thought came to mind. _She called me Sasuke-kun… Then that must mean… _He now knew he could ask his question to his precious person.

"Er, Niina-chan… I was wandering if you wanted to… If you wanted to go out sometime?" He subconsciously held his breath, waiting for the answer.

"…O-out?" She asked innocently.

"… Yeah, you know, like a… date…"

"A 'd-date' date?"

"Yeah… unless you don't want to of course… it doesn't really matter…"

_**Niina's point of view…**_

_He… he just asked me out… but I can't possibly go out… what if I mess up or something… what if… No, Niina, remember what Jiraiya told you and why he is helping you… you shouldn't put his help and advice to waste… _

_**Back to normal…**_

Niina hadn't said anything for a while now and Sasuke was beginning to lose faith. He was now preparing for her to say no or something similar to that.

"S-sasuke-kun?..." Said person looked up to meet Niina's eyes. She looked away quickly before she met his gaze again. "I…" She took a deep breath. "…I w-would like that…"

Sasuke looked at her in shock for a millisecond before he smiled a small smile. "Great… Then, I guess I'll pick you up at about seven?"

She couldn't trust nor find her voice so she simply nodded and ran off, her heart beating faster then ever and her breaths were short, along with the fact that her face was now a deep shade of red didn't help the matter.

_**On top of a nearby roof…**_

The one-eyed jounin was sitting on the roof, with his trusted book in his hand; however, his eyes weren't fixed on the book, but rather on two of his genin team; namely Sasuke and Niina.

He had been watching Sasuke for a while to see when he would figure out what he had meant, and he was smiling under his mask when he saw and heard the interaction between the two.

Though, he wondered who had gotten Niina to leave her cloak behind.

As if someone had read his mind, her heard someone walking up behind him and stop a few feet to his right.

"I didn't think that the Uchiha would go for someone like Niina-mei (niece)… It seems that the world is full of surprises, eh, Kakashi…"

Kakashi didn't need to see the person was in order to know who the person was.

"So, Jiraiya… what are you doing back here?..."

"I'm here to visit my Godchild."

"Godchild?... But who-… Niina?"

Jiraiya smiled. "Yes, she's my Godchild."

"So it was you who got her to drop that hideous cloak she had been wearing earlier?"

"Yeah… She came to me and asked if I could help her with her confidence, and the first thing I did was to get her to get rid of it. She wouldn't at first but then we made an agreement, she would be allowed to wear a more fitting coat, the one that she was wearing right now… I think it suits her more anyway…"

"Sasuke almost didn't recognise her…"

"… I wonder what the two of them will get up to tonight?..." Jiraiya said mischievously.

"Now, Jiraiya, it wouldn't be right to peek on the two of them, especially not on their first date. And I thought that you were helping out on her confidence problem?... And she's your Godchild for Kami-sama's sake…"

"I never said that I would follow them, I was merely just thinking out loud, with the intention of asking Niina tomorrow, not stopping until she answers my question."

"… Don't you think that she's still too… fragile to tease like that?"

"No… I know how to treat her… I would never dream of hurting her, I would do anything within my power to make sure that she is never hurt again, I made a promise the day we got her away from Danzou…"

Kakashi almost winced when he heard the tone of Jiraiya's voice. It was obviously a delicate topic for the toad sannin.

"… Uchiha better not do anything to hurt her…" He said warningly.

"Don't worry, I'm sure Sasuke would never dream of it. He has come to realise that Niina is very precious to him, more then his ambition to kill his brother…"

Jiraiya nodded his head in understanding. "Good… So… What do you think of my new book?"

Kakashi could almost laugh at how quickly the sannin had changed the subject.

* * *

**Yeah, I'm gonna end it here. I guess you all now what'll be coming in the next chapter… Dun dun dur:**

**Orochimaru…**

**Nah, just kidding…**

**Until Next Time…**


	15. The Date

**Okay everyone, sorry if this seems a bit rushed or a bit weird, but I wrote this whilst I was on the bus this morning, so I hope you enjoy it.**

* * *

The date between the two had been sweet and simple. Sasuke had come at seven to Niina' s apartment and she had come out, with her hood over hiding her face, which was blushing furiously, and she was also shaking lightly, though not because she was cold. On the contrary, she had a warm feeling inside, one which she did enjoy, though she could live without the burning sensation on her face.

They didn't talk much, both of them afraid that they might say something wrong, but they enjoyed the silence between them, it was comfortable, and they liked the fact that it was mainly just the two of them together. There was only just a small space between the two as they were walking, though Niina seemed to be fidgeting quite a bit, out of nervousness.

Sasuke had taken Niina out to a small, but cosy restaurant which lay on the outer and less populated part of Konoha. As he though it would be a good idea to be away from the crowd, he didn't think Niina would be too comfortable with so many people around and the fact that they were on a date. He also wanted to make sure that they weren't disturbed, and the chances of that happening would be small if they were out in the central part o Konoha.

They were now done with dinner and the two were walking side by side, on the way back to Niina's apartment.

Sasuke was nervous. He wanted to reach out and hold Niina's small delicate hands, but he was… afraid. Afraid that he would be rejected or that her reaction would be negative. He also didn't want to seem to be too forward, though he wasn't quite sure how that was possible if it was only holding hands. But this was ridiculous; Uchiha's shouldn't be like this. They were supposed to be brave and not fear things as simple as holding hands, no, that was not the way which they were supposed be.

He stole a glance at Niina for the umpteenth time that evening, contemplating whether or not he should make the move. He looked at her again.

He took a deep breath and realised that his heart was beating faster and harder then normal. His hand closest to Niina was shaking lightly, but he had made his decision.

He reached his hand closer to Niina's and gently took her hand into his.

Niina stopped abruptly and looked down at her hand which was now in Sasuke's. She stared at it for a second, before she looked to her other side. The two began walking again, hand in hand. Slowly, the two entwined their fingers, enjoying the warmth of the other. Sasuke smiled to himself, and felt a rush go through his body.

Niina's heartbeat was going a hundred miles and hour and it would not stop. But she didn't notice as she was focusing solely on the fact that Sasuke had taken ahold of her hand. She liked the feeling of the touch of his skin. It was… nice. She couldn't really find the right word. Secretly, she didn't want this night to end, though she knew that the end was inevitably.

Both of them slowed down their pace, and both of them noticed it and also saw that the other did too. They both turned away from the other and blushed a deep shade of crimson red, but carried on with the almost standstill pace they were at.

However, it all ended too soon for either of their liking, as they were now at Niina's door. The two stood there, contemplating on what to do next, their hands still together.

There was an awkward, yet slightly comfortable silence between the two.

Sasuke took his free hand and scratched the back of his neck. And Niina looked down at her feet.

"Th-thank you… Sasuke-kun… I-I had fun…" Niina said in an almost whisper, but Sasuke caught and smiled.

"We should do it again sometime…"

Niina simply nodded. She then looked back up and met Sasuke's beautiful onyx eyes. She thought that they were truly beautiful and she believed that she would be able to stare into them for as long as she lived.

Sasuke had similar if not identical thoughts going through his mind. How he loved those deep crystal blue eyes of hers. There was a sparkle in her eye as the moon shone down apon her, wrapping her around with a delicate silver elegance. Sasuke held his breath.

As the two stared, they didn't notice as their heads were moving nearer and nearer until-…

"Kar! Kar!" A crow just flew past right above them. Niina jumped back in surprise and almost stumbled whilst both of her hands were in front of her in a defensive position.

Sasuke, too, was slightly scared when they had been interrupter by the annoying pest. He then realised what they had been about to do right before the bird had come. _We were about to kiss…_ He blushed and looked over to Niina to see that she was also as red as a tomato, almost going purple for some reason.

"Um… I-I better g-get going Sasuke-kun…"

Sasuke nodded in understanding. "Yeah, it's getting late..."

Niina then walked over to her door, pulling out her keys, opening the door with them, stepping inside, she then stopped and turned around to face Sasuke, who had been watching her the whole time. She blushed again.

Sasuke thought she looked cute. He smiled at her, before turning around. "See you later Niina-chan…" He waved and began to walk away. Niina just stood there and stared at the guy until he was out of site.

She brought the hand which he had held up to her heart and noticed that she could feel it beating… hard… and fast. She then slowly brought it up to her face and felt that she was burning hot, but not out of illness or anything like that, but because she had been blushing so furiously.

"Goodnight… Sasuke-kun…" She said to herself as she closed the door and prepared to go to bed.

_**The next morning…**_

Niina had woken up in a mood which was slightly unfamiliar to her. She felt light, warm and… complete in a way which she couldn't describe. But she knew it was a feeling which she wanted to feel again, so she didn't complain.

She showered, got dressed in her usual attire, ate breakfast, brushed her pearly whites and sun-kissed hair and got ready for her meeting with Jiraiya.

It didn't take long for her to reach the training grounds and she found that Jiraiya was already there, with a questionable smile plastered on his face.

"G-good morning oji-san…" She greeted him quietly with a wave of her hand.

"Morning Niina… so…" He began, the smile still on his face.

Niina cocked her head to the side in a questioning manner.

Jiraiya's smile simply grew.

"How was your date with Sasuke yesterday?"

Niina's eyes widened as her face began to turn more red with each passing second until it was impossible to become anymore red. "H-how did you know?"

"I have my sources; you should know that by now Niina-mei…"

"…"

"Aren't you even going to tell your own Godfather about your very first date?" He said almost jokingly, with a hint of amusement in his voice.

If Niina were like everyone else, she would have rolled her eyes, but she wasn't so she simply just looked down at her feet, twiddling her fingers.

"Well…" Jiraiya tried.

"I… I had fun… H-he held my hand… and…"

"And what?" Jiraiya asked, bemused, though he had an idea.

"We… we almost k-k-kissed…"

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow. "Almost?"

Niina simply nodded, her eyes still observing her feet. "A-a crow s-scared us…"

Jiraiya smiled, restraining himself from letting out an amused chuckle. He couldn't help but be glad for her.

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**Well, here it ends. However, I won't be able to update in a while as I have a massive hockey tournament tomorrow, then I have some revision for this mega important history test/exam for the end of the week and I have to catch up with a lot of homework which I missed since I was ill last week and such. Yep, life sucks sometimes.**

**Anyway, whilst I was writing, I started thinking, which isn't always goo, but then I realised that no-one had ever written a fic where Rock Lee is a girl… strange huh?... I've seen all of the others as females, but never Rock Lee… Oh well, that was just me musing there…**

**Until Next Time…**

**Oh, and if you didn't get it last chapter, when I said Orochimaru would be here in this chapter, it was a joke, as it was obviously going to be what is above…**


	16. Passing Time

**Okay, here's the next chapter and I hope that you all enjoy it.**

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Niina had slept well that night, yes, very well. When she had woken up the next morning, she felt light and… happy, which was still strange for her to feel. Though you might think that she had been happy for the past five years when she was Naruto, it wasn't quite the same as it wasn't herself. She sat in her bed as she let her dreams come to life in her head. She had to admit, the last two nights sleep had been the best which she could remember, and she had a feeling what, or more like who had helped them come along.

She let out a long sigh, a happy, yet still slightly sleepy one.

She closed her eyes lazily, Jiraiya had been helping her train and they had spent the whole of yesterday just doing so, completely oblivious to the time until they noticed that it had become dark, and when they looked at the time they had immediately ended training. It would soon be the chuunin exam finals, and she would have to go up against the Hyuuga prodigy.

Everyone would be there, watching her intently, ignoring everything else around them. For as long as their match was on, Neji and herself would have all of their attention.

A shiver ran down her back. Just the thought of that made her nervous. But… there would also be someone else watching her.

_Sasuke…_

She clutched her arms around herself as she thought about him. She had dreamed about him, and she enjoyed those dreams. She would see him smile at her and hold her in his arms, making her feel safe.

If she knew how, she would have laughed at herself. She was beginning to sound a bit like some sort of fangirl, without all of the squealing and over obsession.

She stood up from her bed and stretched. That was one thing which she enjoyed about the mornings, the great feeling that would rush through your body when you stretched from lying down throughout the night. She then stood there before walking into the bathroom to have her daily shower.

After that was done, she got dressed in her usual attire, which consisted of her a white crop top which had long baggy sleeves, covering her hands, ending with a flare and she had an ocean blue skirt, which ended at her knees, with a slit going up on her left side to the top of her thigh, making it easy to see that she was also wearing a pair of white under shorts. She had her blue shinobi sandals on and her blue sleeveless hoodie on top of everything else.

She looked in the mirror to study herself. She let out a sigh. She hated the fact that she wasn't able to go out there yet and show herself properly. She had tried a few times, but she had never made it any further then her door before running back in to get whatever she could to cover herself.

She then thought back to an event that had happened a few days after she had been revealed to her team. She shuddered and felt her eyes becoming slightly hot.

Two drunken men had found her and taken her to the back of an alley. She could only imagine what they could have done to her, if _he_ hadn't come and saved her.

_Sasuke…_

She shook her head lightly as she went to her fridge to get her breakfast.

_**Two hours later at the training grounds…**_

Niina sat on a log which had fallen yesterday during her training, waiting for Jiraiya to come. He wasn't late, she was simply early.

A few minutes passed before Jiraiya came running, with a silly grin plastered all over her face. She tilted her head to the side in a questioning manner until he stopped right in front of her, his hand holding two sets of keys right in front of her face.

"Lookey what I have." He said, though she still had no idea why she had to look at a pair of keys.

"Keys." She stated, her voice filled with confusion and uncertainty.

"Yes… but do you know what they open?"

She shook her head from side to side.

His grin just got wider. "These keys…" He shook them so that they jingled. "… open the doors to your parents houses, both the Junshin manor and your fathers mansion." He said whilst his grin was still plastered on is face.

Niina's jaw hung slightly lower then it was supposed to. "W-what… why h-have you got them?"

"The old man has given them to me so that I could give to you. Everything that was your parents is now yours. He believes, and so do I, that you are ready to have them." He then took Niina's hand and placed the keys in them, closing her fingers around them so that she could feel that they were actually there. He then placed his larger hand over hers and held it there, giving her some comfort, as he knew what would probably be going through her mind.

Jiraiya's smile softened to that of a sincere one. He then removed his hand and embraced Niina in a hug, letting her know that it was alright for her to cry, which she did. Even though she never knew them, she still missed them so much. She had often been told stories about them from both her oji-san and her ojii-san. She had been told about how they met and she had been shown pictures of their wedding, which was unknown to the public.

And now, she would be allowed to set her foot into the place where they had lived for the first time.

After a few minutes, Jiraiya released her and held her by the shoulders, looking into her slightly wet eyes. He gave a comforting squeeze. "So how about we go and take a look?" He suggested. Niina could only shake her head in reply. The two then made their way over to Niina's inheritance, their first stop; the Kazama mansion.

_**Kazama mansion…**_

The two stood there, just inside of the large gates which surrounded the whole of the estate. The house, no, mansion was huge. It had three stories and there was a large stone arch over the entrance. Ivy and wild flowers had covered the walls, preventing anyone from seeing what was beneath.

She could see the tops of tall trees sprouting from behind the building. The building was located at the very edge of Konoha, away from everyone else. However, it was closer to the higher class of Konoha then any other part, namely the Hyuugas, the Uchihas and the Junshins, though it still was out of view for them. Niina guessed that her father enjoyed his privacy.

After a while of the two just standing there, Jiraiya finally suggested that the two go inside.

They walked up the steps and stood in front of the door. Niina held the key shakily in her hand, before finally pushing it into the keyhole. She turned it and she heard a click, signifying that the door was open.

She opened the door and when she saw what was inside, she was speechless. Though everything was covered in a thick layer of dust, it was still easy to see what there was. There was a great hall with a high ceiling, with the first floor open at the top. There was an open living room and a dining room, everything was in one room, one insanely huge room, though you could easily tell where one started and ended. There was a grand staircase which lead upstairs. The floor was wooden and the walls were all different shades of browns, creams and even some oranges. All in all, it did have a homely effect.

On one of the walls, she noticed that there was a large blank piece of paper. She walked over to it and saw that it wasn't completely blank. Near the top, there were two names; Kazama Arashi, and Junshin Ayaka, their names conjoined by a line, signifying their marriage.

She put a hand in front of her mouth. She could feel the tears begin to well up. _This… this was going to be their… family tree… And now… it's just me…_

Jiraiya had also just noticed the family tree and as soon as he realised what it was, he looked over to Niina and saw what she was going through. He walked over to her and gently wrapped his arms around her, to let her know that she was not alone. He could feel her physically ease up.

"I'll make sure that it doesn't end there…" Niina said quietly, but Jiraiya heard it loud and clear.

After a few minutes, the two went and had a look through the rest of the house. They had lost count on how many bedrooms there, and they both assumed that Arashi had been hoping for a big family. There were also all of the usual rooms such as a kitchen, a large one at that, and when they had looked in one of the cupboards, they had found a number of cook books, all of them having one thing in common; ramen.

They had spent hours looking around until they went outside in the back and found there to be a very large training ground there, along with a beautiful pond filled with koi.

It was the afternoon before they had left the Kazama mansion and they were now heading for the Junshin manor. When they got there, they found a huge building, much larger then the Kazama mansion, in front of them, entirely built of pure white marble and above the grand door, there was the family's crest; a white lily. As if to prove that this was indeed the Junshin manor, there were countless white lilies growing around the building, along with dozens of white water lilies in the ponds there.

Inside, they found it all to be similar to Niina's father's house, though everything seemed to be more grand, and not to mention that the floors, the walls and the ceilings were also made of the same white marble, though it was strange that it didn't feel cold there, more refreshing to be exact. Like at the Kazama mansion, there was a thick layer of dust everywhere.

It was close to midnight when they were done looking through the manor and they concluded that this was indeed much larger then her father's, but that was probably because this use to house the entire clan, when they had been alive.

Niina's mother, Junshin Ayaka, had been the last of them, the rest had been wiped out by a disease which had spread throughout all of the Junshins. Ayaka had been the only one to survive, but she had been made to resign as a shinobi, her ranking had been jounin, due to her having a weakened heart. A few years afterwards, she had met Arashi and the two had eventually fallen in love and gotten married in secret, only Sarutobi and Jiraiya had been informed of this. However, due to Ayaka's weakened heart, she died whilst giving birth to Niina, and he father had died the same day when sealing the Kyuubi into their new born child.

She had been lost on the battlefield and found by none other then Danzou, who knew that she was a Junshin, as their kekkei genkai in always awakened for a week after their birth, though he didn't know who the parents were, and he had taken her back to ROOT and he had brought her up their for the first seven years of her life, until Sarutobi had found out and immediately got her removed from there. And that was when she had gotten the seal placed on her that would make her Naruto.

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**Okay, I know the title kinda sucked but I wasn't quite sure what to call this, and I'm not quite sure why I wrote it this way, but my hands just kept on pressing on all of the buttons, then words had been formed , which lead to sentences and son on and voila (sp?) this is what came out of it...**

**Sorry if you thought that this chapter was weird...**

**Until Next Time...**


	17. See You Around

**Okay, here's a new chapter.**

**IMPORTANT: I'm going away on a trip for a while so I can't update until I get back, sorry… Enjoy…**

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_

Ino looked up from where she was sitting towards the door of her parents' flower shop. She was taking care of the shop this day and she had been currently reading a magazine, though she promptly stopped reading as soon as she saw who had entered through the door.

"Sasuke-kun, what are you doing here?!" She asked, almost screeched. _Yes, he has finally come to take me out on a sate, beat that Forehead-girl…_

"Ur, well Ino…" _Damn, I was hoping that she wouldn't be here, but no such luck…_ "… Do you by any chance sell white lilies here?"

Ino raised an elegant eyebrow. "White lilies? Why would you want a white lily… my favourite flower is an orchid…"

"Right, but I need a white lily."

Ino merely jumped off her seat and began to walk to one of the corners of the room where numerous cut flowers were being held and kept in water. She walked over to one of the pots there and carefully chose the flower she thought fit.

"Would you like me to wrap it for you Sasuke-kun, or would you much rather just have it as it is?"

"It's fine as it is."

"Okay…" She walked over to the counter, sneaking plenty of glances at her crush. Sasuke paid and was about to leave when Ino called him.

"Sasuke-kun, where are you going? Don't you want to hang out?"

"No…" He left it there as he left, closing the door behind him.

Ino let out a sigh and quickly went back to her magazine.

_**Somewhere on the streets…**_

Sasuke was waling along the streets with the flower in hand and an envelope in the other. Some people, well… a lot of girls were giving him heart-shaped gazes, but he ignored them as he had other things to think about.

He felt a gentle breeze beside him and he knew that was not just the wind. He turned his head only to see a tall man with long spiky white hair and odd clothing consisting of the colour green and red. He raised an eyebrow questionably.

The tall man turned his head round as well and smiled. "You must be Uchiha Sasuke, right?"

"Hn."

"Not much of a talker are we…"

"Who are you?"

"Me? You don't know who I am? Why… I'm the legendary toad sannin, JIRAIYA!" He finished in a strange pose, which looked oddly similar to that of both Maito Gai and Rock Lee.

"You're a sannin?"

"Yes."

"Well…"

"'Well' what?"

"Did you want something?"

Jiraiya looked at him oddly before he remembered. "Oh yes… I heard that your date with Niina went well… though the crow did ruin it a bit if you ask me…"

Sasuke stopped dead in his track and stared at the toad sannin. "How do you know about that?!" He demanded.

"Well I should know… Niina is my God child after all…"

"G-godchild?!"

"Yes… But I came here to tell you that you better look after her and treat her right, she's very… sensitive and if anything were to happen to her and I can find the slightest piece of evidence that links her unhappiness to you, then you better learnt o sleep with your eyes open, cos you'll have to deal with me!" He threatened.

Sasuke just continued to stare, though his eyes were now wider.

Jiraiya then softened his facial expression and smiled. "I also want to thank you…"

"What for?"

Jiraiya smiled softly again. "For what you've done for Niina. I know it isn't easy for her, or you for that matter, but I'm glad that she's found someone who cares for her, though I wasn't quite expecting it to be you, but hey, the world is full of surprises."

The two carried on waling in silence for a while until Jiraiya spoke again.

"So… what's the flower for, and why are you walking this direction?" Jiraiya had an idea, but he wanted to her what Sasuke would say.

"Well, the flower's for Niina, and this is a letter for her and I'm walking towards her apartment

"Care to elaborate?"

"I'm going away on a training mission with Kakashi-sensei until the final test in the chuunin exams, and I don't want to wake her up so I'm leaving this letter on her door, along with the flower."

"Why a white lily?"

"Well… I just think that it suits her…"

"More then you think."

"Pardon?"

"Nothing… but you do know that Niina's moved out don't you."

Sasuke stopped dead in his tracks and looked straight into Jiraiya's eyes. "What did you say?"

"Niina moved into her mother's home, or rather, her family's manor, the Junshin Manor to be exact. It only happened yesterday though, so I doubt that anyone apart from me, the Hokage, and now you know, so I'm not that surprised that you didn't."

Jiraiya then looked over to Sasuke and smiled again. "Come on, I'll show you the way there." He then began to walk off in a different direction. Sasuke noticed that it was the same direction as the Uchiha estate was in, though he quickly put it off and just assumed that that was by coincidence.

After twenty minutes of walking, they stopped outside of the gates which lead to the manor. In front of the two, there was a large wall, twenty feet high, made of pure white marble. Sasuke could only stand and stare, looking a lot like a fish gasping for water.

"I-I've lived in the Uchiha estate for the whole of my life, and not once have I noticed this place." Indeed, where Sasuke lived wasn't that far from here.

"Well, no-one's been here for twelve years, until yesterday that is, when Niina first saw it and moved in. Her father's mansion is also around here somewhere, but she decided to move in here as her family's jutsu scrolls and training centers are here, which'll help her to master her kekkei genkai."

Sasuke's head flung around so that he could look Jiraiya dead in the eye. "Sh-she has a kekkei genkai?! W-what is it?"

Now, Jiraiya's smile wasn't that soft anymore, but rather, cheeky and it sent a message which went along the lines of 'I-know-something-you-don't-know' or 'I'm-not-telling-and-you-can't-make-me'.

"Ah, so she has yet to tell you, though I'm sure that you'll find out during the finals of the chuunin exams. Ja ne." And he was gone in a _poof_ before he could even protest.

Sasuke just sighed as looked at the two items in his hands. He placed the stem of the flower through the two handles of the gates, with the letter tucked in behind it, but not before placing a small kiss on the letter.

_I can't wait to see you when I get back… Niina-chan…_

And he was off, off to meet with Kakashi.

_**Later on that day…**_

Niina woke up and stretched, enjoying the feeling.

She looked at her clock and sighed. _09:30… Time to take a shower…_

When she was done and she had eaten and gotten dressed, she made her way out of the grand building and stopped when she reached the gates as something had caught her eye.

She picked up the two items and wondered who they were from. She looked at the flower, then at the huge crest which was above the door to the building; both of them white lilies. She pulled it up to her nose and she inhaled the soothing aroma and let out a long pleasurable sigh. She then placed the flower under her arm so that she could open the envelope which had her name on.

_Niina-chan…_

_I'm sorry I didn't tell you in person, but I didn't want to wake you. I'm going away on a training mission with Kakashi-sensei and I'll be back when we have the chuunin exam finals._

_I'll miss you and I can't wait until we meet again._

_Sasuke_

She re-read the letter and she didn't know whether to be sad or happy. Sad because Sasuke would be gone for a while and she wouldn't be able to see him until he returned or happy because it seemed that he did care about her and that he said that he would miss her.

She retook the flower into her hand and sniffed it again. She walked back into her home, walked into the kitchen and found a clear glass vase. She filled it with water and placed her flower from Sasuke into it. She walked up into her chosen bedroom and placed the vase and flower on her bedside table, the letter standing next to it.

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**Okay, I'll end it there and when I come back from my trip and update this fic, it should be the beginning of the chuunin exam finals! WOO! I can't wait to write that… **

**Until Next Time…**


	18. I'm coming, I'm coming

**Oh My God! I'm so sorry everyone. It's been nearly a WHOLE month since I last update (well, a week less then a month, but still). The first week when I didn't update I was away in Italy with my school and had a blast, the second week I went back to school and had work to catch up on whilst the last week I'm had some very important exams which could effect my future. I also have a huge art exam at the end of the month but I decided that it was about time that I update this so here you go.**

**Thanks to all of the reviewers out there who make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside…**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but when I do I'll be sure to let you all know!

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Today was the day. She had had a month to prepare for this and it was now time. She was walking along the streets in the direction of the stadium where the finals of the chuunin exams would take place.

To say that she was nervous would be an understatement as she was visibly shaking, just the thought of all those people staring at her whilst she fought in her match made chills run up and down her spine.

Her opponent didn't help either as he was last years rookie; one Hyuuga Neji. She knew that he was good and that he had the confidence to back it up, whereas she lacked in the area of confidence.

There were many other people around her who were heading towards the same destination as her and that made her feel even worse as those people would also be there to watch her fight.

She wrapped her arms around herself to try and prevent herself from turning around and running back home to where it would be safe, without all of these people being around her.

However, she would not do that as she had made a promise.

_**Flashback…**_

"…Alright, that's enough for today Niina." Jiraiya called over to her as he had now ended her last training session before her fight which would be the following day.

Nina simply nodded. "Thanks Oji-san…"

Jiraiya smiled back at her but frowned a second later. "What's wrong Niina?" He asked as he walked over to where she was now sitting.

She said nothing for a while, so Jiraiya spoke up. "You're nervous about tomorrow, aren't you?"

Niina nodded hesitantly.

"That's understandable, but I'm sure you'll do great tomorrow."

"B-but… I'm just so nervous, I mean… there'll be all those p-people there and I… I don't know if I can do it… it's just so hard…" A tear then slid down her beautifully tanned cheek.

Jiraiya then took her by her shoulders so that he was looking at her square in the face and vice versa. "You'll do fine tomorrow Niina, I'll promise you that much. There's nothing to be scared about."

"B-but, I don't know if I can…" She said hopelessly.

"Don't talk like that Niina, now, promise me that you will compete and do your very best tomorrow and show that Hyuuga what you got."

Niina's lower lip trembled in response.

"Promise me this Niina, please."

"I… I promise oji-san."

Jiraiya gave a comforting squeeze on her shoulders whilst smiling at her before letting go. "I'm glad, now… how about we go and get us something to eat."

She nodded and the two walked off.

_**End Flashback…**_

She would keep her promise as that was her nindo, her ninja way and she would never go back on her word. She kept repeating her promise in her head like a mantra, completely oblivious of what was happening around until she felt a pair of arms encircle around her where she promptly 'eeped' as her heart beat suddenly began to beat twice as fast and twice as hard then just a mere second ago.

"Hello Niina-chan…" Said a soft and familiar voice, but she had to see if what she thought was true or not.

She slowly turned her head around only for her eyes to land upon a beautifully pale face with deep onyx eyes. "S-sasuke-kun…" She stuttered, though it wasn't because she was nervous.

Niina was now blushing furiously, a shade of red which could easily give Hinata a run for her money.

Niina, now completely turned around, was being hugged gently by the Uchiha, and she hugged him back.

Sasuke could feel his cheeks burning slightly but he just ignored the feeling and just concentrated in the fact that he now had Niina in his arms after having been away training for nearly a month without even hearing a word from her. He had missed her so much.

"I missed you Niina-chan…"

"I-I missed you too… Sasuke-kun…"

The two stood there for two seconds in each other's arms before they broke apart and set upon walking in the direction which Niina had been previously walking in.

Sasuke gently clasped her hand in his and she folded her fingers to suit the grip. Sasuke noticed that she inched closer to him as they walked and that she was looking around wearily, almost as if she had some one stalking her.

"You okay Niina-chan?" Sasuke asked in a generally concerned voice.

"I… I'm okay… Just a little n-nervous I guess…"

"Don't worry, you'll do fine."

When he said that, Niina felt her heart beat faster and she got a warm sensation from her shoulders down her back. She liked that feeling. Those simple five words had just wiped away all of the worries which she had had only moment ago. Sasuke had made her feel safe. He had given her some much needed confidence.

The two made it to the gates, both of them thinking the exact same thing. _That went way too quickly…_ Sasuke turned to face Niina.

He smiled. "Good Luck Niina, I'm sure that you'll beat Neji."

"Th-thank you Sasuke… And g-good luck to you too." Sasuke nodded and then the two let go of the other's hand as they both walked through the tunnel which would lead them to the centre of the stadium which was where they were to meet before the fight began.

It was dark in the tunnel and they could see a bright light ahead which they followed. The light got bigger and bigger until they were blinded as they exited the tunnel. It took a second for them to get their eye sight back and when they did they were in awe as all around the centre there were dozens of boxes filled with countless seat which were now nearly full with people still squeezing in, trying to get a good seat to see the upcoming fight.

After a few seconds of standing there they both walked over to where all of the other contestants were already standing, waiting for them to arrive.

When they got there they noticed that the sickly looking jounin, Hayate, was not there but in his place there was another jounin who had a senbon in his mouth, much like a n extra long toothpick.

"Alright, it looks like everyone is here now, which means that we can begin." The jounin then pulled out a piece of paper which had the match order written on it and showed it to the chuunin hopefuls to remind them.

1st match: Hyuuga Neji vs. Junshin Kazama Niina

2nd match: Sabaku no Gaara vs. Akimichi Chouji

3rd match: Aburame Shino vs. Sabaku no Kankorou

4th match: Nara Shikamaru vs. Sabaku no Temari

5th match: Uchiha Sasuke vs. winner of 4th match.

He then placed it back in his pocket.

"Ladies and gentlemen…" The voice of the third Hokage boomed throughout the stadium. "… Thank you all for coming and I know that you have all been waiting for this day to come, so rather then going on like this I think that we all would prefer it if the matches could start. So… BEGIN!" The crowd cheered but it eventually died down as the jounin in the centre made a motion for them to do so.

"Could everyone apart from Hyuuga Neji and Junshin Kazama Niina please go up into the viewing stands so that the first match can begin."

Everyone did as they were told, though Sasuke did stop by Niina and give her a reassuring squeeze on the arm before he left.

When all of the others were gone, the proctor shouted begin!

Neji immediately got into the typical Hyuuga stance whilst Niina just stood there, staring at her opponent with worry etched on her face.

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**Okay, I'm gonna end it here so that their match can begin next chapter.**

**I hope that it wasn't too bad though I know it was like a filler, it's just that I find it easier to get back into a fic by starting out with a filler…**

**Until Next Time…**


	19. Niina vs Neji

**Okay everyone, I tried, I really tried to write this as quickly as I could so that I could get it posted as soon as possible so I'm sorry if there're a couple of spelling mistakes or any other mistakes.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto… Sad really, isn't it?**

**Oh yeah IMPORTANT… I'm sorry if the fight scene sucks as I'm not very good at writing them but I'll try my best and have a go at it.**

**Oh yeah, this might be a bit fluffy, like the last chapter was… and the chapter before… Hmm…

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Everything and everyone was silent as they were all waiting for the two competitors to make a move, though the two were standing completely still, only their clothing and hair waving slightly in the breeze which was present.

You could hear someone cough in the background.

Still nothing happened.

_**Down with Niina and Neji…**_

Neji had a smirk plastered on his face. He was in the Hyuuga's Jyuuken stance.

"I can tell that you are nervous by the look in your eye. They portray everything which you are feeling and I can see your doubts… You don't think that you can win this match, besides… when we were made opponents, fate had already decided who would win this… You have no chance of being that person."

Niina looked up at him and at that moment, he activated his bloodline. A chill ran down her spine and it was true that she was nervous… and she sadly did have those doubts.

"Give up now or I'll be forced to hurt you."

Tempting as it was, she wouldn't break her promise to her oji-san.

"I… I won't back d-down…" She said meekly, but it was helped by the fact that she got into one of her clans taijutsu stances; the Soshiken (roughly; elements fist), which had six different versions to it.

No-one, apart from the Hokage, recognised this stance, so they were all at a loss.

_**Up in the Kages's seating area…**_

The Kazekage widened his eyes slightly in interest when he saw what stance the girl was using.

The Hokage noticed this and so decided to fill the man in. "She is a part of a prestigious clan, who sadly have been wiped out… apart from her of course. The stance she is using is known as the elemental fist which is used in sync with their kekkei genkai."

"I think that this'll be an interesting chuunin exam this year…" The Kazekage replied. _Let's see how far you have come… Niina-san…_

_**Back down again…**_

Tired of waiting, Neji was the first to move. Fast and smoothly, he was now right in front of Niina, already attacking her with his clan's taijutsu, sending his palms forward to try and get a hit on her tenketsu points, but not having any luck as Niina used one of the versions of her own taijutsu style to dodge every would-be blow.

_**Kages…**_

"Her eye is glowing blue as she is using the water element and when she combines that with the elemental fist, it is near to impossible to lay a finger on her if she has it mastered, though she hasn't done that yet."

_**Fight…**_

Indeed, Niina's moves were smooth and flowing, just like water itself as she weaved herself in and around every palm and foot aimed at her.

Neji was on the offence and believed himself in having the advantage as she was only in the defense, though he was finding it annoying how he couldn't seem to lay a finger on her, she just kept getting around him somehow.

His Byakugan could see that a constant surge of chakra was flowing throughout the whole of her body, so he suspected that chakra was needed for her to use her clans' style. If he couldn't beat her by laying a hit, then he would beat her by making her reach the point of chakra exhaustion… if only he knew how much chakra she actually had.

Niina was now focused, concentrating on every single move that Neji made, every twitch and movement. At that moment, he was all she knew. She saw a palm thrust towards her stomach, she parted her legs and landed in a split, quickly scissoring them back together so she could get up again, she then used the momentum to back flip away from Neji so that they were now parted by a couple meters.

"You're good but not good enough… you still have no hope in defeating me." Neji taunted.

Niina's eye immediately stopped glowing as she lost her focus. She drew her arms around herself as he began to belittle her. Her lower jar began to quiver as her eyes began to threatening to leak her unshed tears.

_**Up in the viewing platform…**_

Sasuke's hands were firmly gripped on the bar in front of him as he was watching Neji belittle Niina. His lips were thinned as he resisted the urge to jump down there and beat some sense into the Hyuuga.

Shikamaru had been observing Sasuke and he had seen how he had looked at her when they arrived together. He knew that the two liked each other, it was clear as daylight. He would have laughed at the fact that Sasuke was loosing control of his emotions like that if he didn't find it too troublesome.

He could only wonder how every other girl would take the news once they found out.

_**Back to the fight…**_

Niina's whole body began to tremble but still no tears were shed.

"Just give up and spare yourself… There isn't room in the shinobi world for someone as weak as you."

_H-he's right… I am weak… Maybe… maybe I should just quit being a ninja altogether… But… I have to keep my promises… I… don't know what to do…_

She was brought out of her thoughts when she heard someone shout from a distance behind her.

"Come one Niina! Get your head back into the fight! I know you can beat this guy!"

_Sasuke… Thank you…_

Niina took a deep breath as she stood up straight, released herself from her arms and looked straight at Neji. Her Shiroyuri was now at its final stage. Her iris' were a glowing silver whilst her pupil was a five-pronged star which was now spinning wildly.

_This is for you… Sasuke-kun…_

She took a deep breath and her eyes got a brown glint as she jumped up and then disappeared into the ground, making it look like it had just eaten her in one gulp.

Everyone was confused about what had just happened for the two minutes where noting happened.

Suddenly, there was a rumbling noise and the earth was shaking a little when suddenly the ground cracked and up came Niina, followed by a stream of water which she had obviously gotten from an underground stream.

When she landed on the ground, the water circled around her until she stuck her hand out towards Neji, making the water go at a blinding speed towards him. He dodged it and smirked but the water went up in the air and exploded so that it rained over the arena, flooding the arena with a two inch depth.

"That was pretty pointless…" Neji said half-heartedly.

Suddenly, Niina's hand began to glow as lightning began to spark off of it. A glove of the lightning was quickly formed and she plunged it into the water, sending the electricity through the water, heading straight towards Neji, whose smirk had gone.

"Kaiten!" He shouted as he made a spinning chakra shield around himself. The lighting diverted and struck the wall behind him. He stopped spinning and sported his smirk again.

Niina clapped her hands together and kept them in the prayer-like position with her middle fingers folded over one another and shouted, "Soshi Bunshin no Jutsu!" (Elements clone jutsu) and she split into to three (yes, split, no _poofs_ or anything). One had a glowing brown eye, the second had a glowing blue eye whilst the last one, and the original one had her glowing silver eye, except that the star pupil only had three prongs, instead of the five.

_**Kages…**_

"Each of the five prongs on her pupil represent an element and when she uses her clans clone jutsu, then she can split up into a total of five persona, each one of them with their own element, but since there are only three, the original one will have th remaining elements, so Niina now has wind, fire and lightning whilst the other two clones have either water or earth.#

_**The fight…**_

The earth bunshin was the first to react as she ran straight for Neji but dived into the ground right before she got too close and then the earth began to shake again until she re-emerged right beneath Neji in a tornado formation, too fast for Neji to react. The earth surrounded him and caked on around him until he was in a cocoon with the top missing so that you could see his head sticking out. He was now immobile and the water bunshin immediately swayed her arms around and shot it straight at Neji, making him soaking wet and now the original Niina ran straight towards Neji with her hands cackling with electricity and she reached out a hand, ready to electrocute him but stopped a mere centimeter away from him.

"Proctor… the match is over…" She said in a serious tone.

Genma, who had been watching intently shook his head out of the daze and shouted. "Winner of the 1st match… Junshin Kazama Niina!"

The spectators immediately erupted in a mixture of cheers and applause at the great match.

Niina, who had completely forgotten about everyone else around her went bright red and wrapped her arms around herself yet again.

She did a quick bow and hurriedly made her way up to the viewing platform. But before she made it to the top of the stairs, she saw Sasuke standing there, smiling at her.

She blushed lightly under his gaze. "Th-thank you… Sasuke-kun… for helping me back then…"

Sasuke furrowed his eyebrows in confusion as he walked over to her and gently took ahold of her arms, making her blush furiously.

"What for?"

"I h-heard you… and when I did, you g-gave me strength." She looked away for a second as she felt her fave heat up but quickly looked back at Sasuke, who was simply just smiling at her, his eyes sparkling as he stared into Niina's eyes.

Neither of them said anything and without thinking, the two drew their heads closer and closer until their lips met softly as they shared a soft and tender kiss. Their first kiss.

When they parted, they both kept their eyes closed for a second before Niina looked away, sporting a new shade of red, but she looked back at Sasuke again to seek his approval of what they had just done.

He was smiling a soft smile.

The two then walked up the rest of the stairs and walked on to the viewing platform.

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There you go… I really do hope that it wasn't too bad and just a word of warning to everyone, I probably won't update in about a week, but I'll try my best…**

**Until Next Time…**


	20. Just Too Troublesome

'**ello everybody! I'm back!... Though I wasn't gone for too long I just felt like saying that. Just to make this clear. I won't be able to update after this chapter for about two or three weeks… I have so many exams (GCSEs) which'll effect my future (literally) so I'll have to focus on them instead of writing for FF… It's so sad but it must be done!**

**Oh yeah, can I just say sorry about the fight between Shikamaru and Temari that's going to happen in this chapter in advance. It's gonna be the same as the fic but it'll have a different result. Sorry for the boredom which you'll go through when reading that.**

**I'll show when and where they begin and end if you want to skip that part, as it is also written pretty badly… sorry…**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto but I'll be sure to let you all know once I do!

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Shikamaru looked behind him as he heard shuffling coming from the direction of the stairs only to find Sasuke and Niina coming from there, the latter sporting an interesting shade of red.

But it was too troublesome to think about so he turned his attention back to the proctor who was standing in the centre of the stadium.

When all of the audience had settled down from the previous match, Genma began to announce the next match.

"Would Sabaku no Gaara and Akimichi Chouji please make their way down to the arena so that the second match can begin."

There was a swirl of sand in the centre of the arena right next to Genma and the sand then began to form itself into Gaara, who stood there motionlessly, his eyes a devoid of any emotions and bloodlust radiating slightly off of him, even though he was trying not to let that happen.

Up in the stands, Chouji was shaking and sweating at the same time and his crisps were lying down, half-full, on the ground next to him. His eyes were slightly larger then they would normally be.

Shikamaru saw this and placed a hand on his friends shoulder.

"You know… If you don't want to do this then you don't have to… This guy… He isn't normal…" The last part was said almost to himself but Chouji heard him all the same.

Chouji nodded his head slowly.

"Whatever you choose to do, know this… I'm behind you all the way."

Chouji nodded his head slowly again and opened his mouth to take in a deep breath.

"PROCTOR!... I FORFEIT !" He shouted. Immediately, he calmed down.

The audience, however, weren't to pleased about that as they began to BOO and complain.

"Alright then…" Genma said. "Could Aburame Shino and Sabaku no Kankurou please make their way down to begin the third match!"

_Shit!... This wasn't supposed to happen… Gaara was supposed to be down there before we start the invasion and Temari and I were supposed to be at full strength when we begin fighting… _Kankurou looked over to his sister and saw that she was looking at him. They made a silent agreement between themselves.

"PROCTOR!... I ALSO FORFEIT!"

The crowds grew even more restless at this. Garbage and insults began to get thrown everywhere. The audience was getting angry at the disappointment of the two forfeits in a row.

Kankurou looked over to his sister again and she eventually gave a reluctant nod. It wouldn't do to make the leaf nins suspicious.

Genma let out a long sigh. So much for having an easy day, this was turning out to be more niggling day for him then he though it would be. He crossed his fingers and hoped that the next match wouldn't turn out like these two had.

"Could Sabaku no Temari and Nara Shikamaru please make their way down to the arena for the next match!"

Temari immediately whipped out her fan from its place on her back and flew down to the ground, leaving the crowd in awe and pleasing some of them as well as they now, finally, got another fight.

Shikamaru, however, was more reluctant. _How troublesome… It's so typical, my match get's moved up by two places just because some people forfeited… I have two options;… 1, I go down there and fight or 2, I forfeit as well… but if I do that then I'll have Ino after me and that would be more troublesome then fighting… _He looked up at the sky…_ And today is such a good day to just watch the clouds, and it just had to be this day which would be the chuunin finals…_

He moved and made his way down the stairs to the arena where his opponent was eagerly waiting.

It took a couple of minutes as he was walking at his normal pace (which is incredibly slow). When he got there, Temari had a vein throbbing on her forehead.

"What took you so long lazy-ass?!" She shouted, but she soon enough smirked. "Oh, I get it, you were just trying to delay your defeat…"

"Whatever…"

Again, a throbbing vein appeared on her forehead. Genma, who had been watching this with little interest, thought that it was time to please the audience.

He cleared his throat and got their attention. "Well, if you two are done bickering, we can start the match."

Temari instantly got into a stance with her fan ready whilst Shikamaru simply just stood where he was.

"Hey you! Are you just gonna stand there or didn't the message get through that think head of yours?!"

Shikamaru mentally smirked. _So… she has a short temper… perhaps that'll come in handy during our fight…_

"BEGIN!" Came the shout of Genma as he jumped back slightly.

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---------Xxxxxxxxx the same as the episode xxxxxxxxX---------

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Shikamaru still didn't move. _Why is it that I always have to face the girls… _

Without a second thought, Temari ran straight at Shikamaru with her fan held high in her hands, jumping up high up in the air and swung her fan down hard onto Shikamaru, only, when the dust cleared, he wasn't there.

She looked around and found that he was standing on two kunais stuck in the wall. He looked bored as hell and that made her slightly angry.

_I forgot, this girl's a spunky one… I hate spunky…_

She swung her fan, which was now open, at him in hope of knocking him unconscious, but, again, when the dust cleared he wasn't there. She looked around but she couldn't find him this time. _Hmm… he must be hiding somewhere in the greenery…_

She smirked to herself. _He's fast when he's running away… But that's about all he can do, as I know what he can do…_ she thought to herself as she remembered what happened in the preliminaries.

He then walked out from his hiding place. _What?!... Is he mocking me?!... I'll show him!_

'_Fūton: __Ninpou Kamaitachi'_ She shouted as she waved her fan and a cutting wind went straight at Shikamaru, who didn't even bother to dodge it as he stood his ground, the wind cutting scratches on him.

"ARGH!"

Suddenly, just as she stopped her jutsu, a shadow came reaching towards her through the active dust cloud. She jumped, flipped and dodged back until she was out of its reach. _Now I get it… He can use the walls shadow as well as any other shadow… And he's got a limit and his can only reach to here… 15 meters…_

Shikamaru quickly went back into hiding. He sat down and put his hands together in an 'O' shape, his thinking position. _Strategy time…_

Minutes passed as he thought and the audience was left to wonder.

_Got it…_

"So… you have some fighting spirit in you after all…" Temari stated as Shikamaru once again immerged from his hiding place, one hand in his pouch. He simply shrugged in reply.

She took another swing with her fan and the events repeated themselves as Shikamaru stood his ground.

He was gone.

Suddenly, kunai flew from all directions at her and then a shadow made it's way towards her. She stood where she was, thinking that it couldn't reach her. But to her shock, it did so she jumped back until it was, yet again, at it's limit.

She smirked.

Suddenly, it came again and so she jumped back. She quickly looked up and saw to her horror that the Nara had created a small parachute with his coat. The shadow came at her again, but she managed to dodge it to his supposed chagrin. She smiled at herself.

She opened her fan and hid behind it as she began to strategize herself. When she was done she stood up and then found that she couldn't move an inch. _WHAT!... How did he…_

_Got her…_ Shikamaru thought with a smirk. "It took a while, but my shadow possession finally worked…"

He then proceeded to explain how he did what he did (I'm sure you all know and that you are now bored stiff with this unoriginal writing of this chapter so far, but rest assured, it is now done, this part at least)

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---------Xxxxxxxxx not the same as the episode xxxxxxxxX---------

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Shikamaru smirked as he knew exactly what to do next. He made her walk towards him so that they were only five meters apart. (From now until this match is finished, I'm just gonna say 'they' as their movements are the same)

They placed their hands into their pouches and retrieved a kunai each.

"What are you planning to do with these? If you throw them, then we'll either both get knocked out or we'll both dodged!"

"I know." They then dropped the kunai and it landed on the ground with a clang.

This was repeated until only Temari had a kunai in her hand as Shikamaru was all out, but he held his hand like he would with a kunai there.

"What are you planning to do know?" Shit, she was freaking out slightly.

Shikamaru simply smirked as he raised his hand to his to his throat, the only difference between the two was that Temari had a kunai at her throat.

"Give up or I'll have to slit your throat…"

Her eyes widened, she didn't have a choice. "… What if you were the one with the kunai left, and not me… what would you have done then?"

"I would have used that against you as well… by simply throwing it…"

"Proctor!... I…" _I can't believe it… _"I… I give up…"

Shikamaru released the shadow bind and began to walk up towards the stairs, the crowds cheering loudly for him as a leaf nin had just beaten a sand nin.

"Hold on a second Nara Shikamaru…" Genma said. The lazy nin stopped in his tracks and slowly turned around to face the proctor.

"…Yeah?..."

"You still have to fight in the fifth match against Uchiha Sasuke…"

"… I forfeit that match… It's just too troublesome… besides… I've got not chakra left…"

"Urr… right…" He let out a tired sigh. "Could Junshin Kazama Niina and Sabaku no Gaara please make their way down to the arena so that the sixth match can begin!"

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**Yeah… I'm ending it here. This chapter is longer then most the others and I didn't want to just end it in the middle of the fight, so I'm ending it here…**

**As I said at the beginning, I won't be able to update for about two weeks as I have important exams and all… Sorry about that…**

**CHOW!**

**(That's my new phrase instead of 'Until Next Time'… I like it more and that's what I've been writing in all of the reviews I've been giving to other authors… CHOW!)**


	21. Niina vs Gaara

**Hi ya... (-laughs nervously-)... yeah, I know I haven't updated for a couple of moths, but... I do actually have a reason (kinda)... Firstly, I had another writers block (I have them often), and I had two sets of mock exams with only a month between them, along with five WHOLE days of art exams and work where that was all I concentrated on for 24/7, I think I did well if anyone cares, but at the end of that, whilst I was in the art room, I suddenly had a sever claustrophobia attack and I spent a week recovering and then two weeks ago I had a jab (I HATE needles with a flaming passion!)... Oh! And I was also away for a couple of week during christmas with no access to my laptop... And now, well... I'm here...**

**Yeah, that was a long explanation but it was 100 percent TRUE I tell you!**

**Also, I was having problems writing this chapter and I didn't know how it should go, but I did it now so be happy (I hope)...**

**Moving on...**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto... only the OCness which I have in my fic, thank you very much...**

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Everything was silent. All you could hear was the leaves in the trees rustling along with the wind. There were many bets placed, and this one match could determine the fate of many of them. Also, they had all heard of the Sand genin, Gaara. And then there was Niina, whom no-one, except for a certain hadnful, knew anything about. But they had seen her beat Neji, THE Neji, which was quite a feat. And the skills which they had already seen were a sight to behold considering she was only a genin.

This was the match.

Genma looked form one of the opponents to the other, glad that neither of the two had forfeited, though of they did, then he would have been anle to retire early that day, which would have been nice, but everyone else up in the stands didn't have the same opinion.

He mentally crossed his fingers...

"Begin!" He shouted as he quickly moved away from the two, or more like the red-headed genin. He didn't like the look the kid had in his eyes; the eyes of a killer, one who enjoyed the bloodshed. He hoped nothing too bad would happen to the blond, she didn't seem too bad.

Meanwhile, Niina stood stock-still, one arm wrapped around her waist whilst she held the other hand up to her mouth, covering it, showing that she was clearly nervous.

Gaara, however, was excited, he had been thrilled by what he had seen happen in her last match and he knew that his mother would like her blood oh-so-much. He licked his lips which were shaped in a wide and malicious grin.

He could wait anymore, his mother was getting too resltess, he made the first move. He removed the cork from his gourd on his back and let the sand flow out and gather in a ring around him, tentacles of sand swiping around. Suddenly, one struck out towards Niina, her eye flashed blue as she dodged at the last second.

Another tentacle readhed out towards her right arm, but Niina was still faster, managing to dodge it like the last. After another seven tentacles had attempted ro grab Niina, they stopped as none of them had succeeded.

Niina was in the mood, nothing around her mattered now, only Gaara and her fight with him. She would win.

Her eye turned to a glowing silver colous as winds began to pick up around her. She narrowed her eyes as she prepared for the attack. She swung her arm back and then swung it forward, releasing a razor sharp wind blade which headed staight towards the sand genin. She released a second one straight afterwards.

Gaara dodged the first one, but didn't notice the second one, which had veen in the first's shadow. It hit and Gaara got a deep cut in his left arm, blood running quickly down his arm and dripping off of his fingertips.

His right hand touched the crimson liquid and brought it up to his noose and gave it a sniff begore licking it off with his tongue.

This excited him. It had been so long since he had last seen his own blood, let alone in this quantity. The pain... he liked it.

Niina didn't waste any time as her eye glowed brown before she disappeared into the ground. Gaara quickly made a clone in his place with his sand.

But the clode didn't last that long as a pair of hands reached out from the ground and grabbed the clone's ankles, pulling it down to waist level, the next second, a pillar of water shot right through it and destroyed it as the mixture of water and sand turned it to mud, making it unusable for Gaara, who growled when he saw this happen.

Through the hoel Niina jumped out from the ground, some of the mud sticking to her clothes, though she didn't seem to care as she ran stright at Gaara, her eyes glowing a stunning silver, the pupil, not a star shaped, spinning wildly; the final stage of the Shiroyuri, complete control over the elements at once.

She moved to her left a meter away from Gaara then didged to the right, too quickly for Gaara to follow. She jumped up into the air and delivered a powerful hack with her heel, unfortunately, most of the brute was absorbed by Gaara's sand, though he still got a powerful hack to the shoulder.

With her foot secured on gaara, she swung the other leg around and kicked Gaara in the head, flipping off of him quickly as she did so.

She swung her arm, letting another razor sharp wind blade got fly towards Gaara, catching him on the side, though the would wasn't as deep as it was on his arm.

To the crowd, it was obvios who was winning, many of them were crying over the fact that they knew that they had lost their money, seeing as there was no way for Gaara to win anymore. But mostly, they were all rattled up and excited by the display shown down in the arena and were all cheering on.

Suddenly, all of the cheering stopped as they all heard the laughter of something which wasn't human, and it was coming frok down where the two genins were fighting.

The horrible sound was eing emitted from the mouth of the jinchuuriki from the sand. If possibøe, the malevolent grin was even wider then before. It seemed like all of the wounds and bruises sported by him didn't effect him. and that freaked out a lot of people.

"I knew that you would be good, but THIS!... This is... Better then I expected!" He shouted whilst he continued to laugh. Suddenly, the sand around him began to collect and surround him, eventually turning into a cocoon of some sort.

Niina growled and sped forward towards it with lightning cackling in the palms of her hands. But before she could plunge them into the sand shell, spikes shot out from all around and she stopped dead in her tracks as realisation of what had just happened dawned apon her. She had gotten too into the fight and had been enjoying it too much that she was beginning to get carried away.

The lightning disappeared and her eyes returned to normal as her arms began to curl around her small frame. She looked worriedly around her until she heard an enormous explosiong behind her and she whipped around to do nothign but stare at the massive cloud of smoke that was coming from somewhere outside of the stadium. Then there was another one, though smaller, coming from where the Kages had been seated. She turned around again to see what had happened and found that there was a huge purple box around the roof. She could see some cloaked figures standing outside of it and guessed that they were ANBU.

She then looked hurriedly to the audience to find that most of them where somehow asleep, the ones who weren't were at least chuunin level.

Lastly, she looked over to whre the otehr contestants were staying and nearly screamed when she saw two of them, two SAND genin, heading her way from there. They were Gaara's teammates. She hid behind her hands, ready for them to land a blow on her but all she felt was a slight wind. She looked up and noticed that they had jumped over her and now had Gaara, his arms over their shoulders, and then they jumped away...

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**Yeah, I know that it's short and not really worth the wait but here you go...**

**I tried my best of the fight scene but those of you who know me know that fight scene are my weakness and a big one at that... sorry about that but it can't be helped.**

**I'm not sure when I'll next be able to update but I will never EVER discontinue this story like I have don't to so many other fics so no need to fret about that. This is one that I'll stick to...**

**No idea when I'll nest update Konoha's Scarlet Claw but I want to at least got the invasion over with in this story before I contibue that one as writing about the Chuunin exams is SO damn BORING... Really, it is...**

**A Racer's Mechanic... Well, I kinda got bored with that but you never know, I might suddenly have a change of heart (sorry to disappoint anyone out there)**

**Anyway...**

**CHOW!**


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